The Jungle Book by Disney was a new movie for me. Not being familiar with any of the previous works, comics or movies about this, I went into this thinking it was about young Tarzan. On an aside, Tarzan was a preview played before the movie and it looks like Avatar on Earth (so very so-so). So is it any good?
Well, the answer is yes. But also it could've been better if they took a few more risks. The story is about a young boy abandoned in the woods who is raised by some various animals. A tiger has it in for him due to his past experiences with mankind. So the boy has to run in order to not die. On his coming-of-age journey, he has to learn (and teach others) that being himself is not bad.
The movie is good. Although the child actor used for the main character could learn to have a bit more range than blindly screeching everything to show anger, the movie doesn't make him too grating. They also show a pretty clear character arc for most the characters. Unfortunately, the lead actor here once again has the weakest arc (pretty much involving people telling him what is okay to do and never really changing or learning that much).
The main parts that don't really fit in are the songs. One song is not too bad, but the Gorilla breaking into song as they are trying to build up his threat really broke the tone of the movie. Especially as the song was half-comedic and sung really light. But both songs didn't really match the darker tone they gave to this whole movie (he nearly gets eaten by a snake and the violence is graphic) and felt like they were trying to appeal to kids who would still have nightmares about the rest of the movie. So yeah, could've just left them out.
The other part is doesn't really fit (especially after the excellent Zootopia) there is isn't much effort to show different animals interacting outside of just giving them different human traits (Mob boss, con artist). However, this isn't consistently bad and the water truce is well done. Oh, and someone should show the wolves the Transformers How It Should Have Ended movie ("We fight together. Don't leave me alone with a psychotic tiger especially when it is against the whole Law of Wolves I teach you daily.").
Overall, the movie is pretty good. It is not as good as Zootopia but it is definitely several big steps are above average. I felt that the songs should have been cut and a better child actor could've been better, but definitely worth watching.
3.5 out of 5 Stalking Waffles.
Tuesday 26 April 2016
Thursday 7 April 2016
BOARD GAME REVIEW: CODENAMES (2015)
Codenames has been the party-game darling from the end of last year. Done by the same guy who has done Mage Knight (Vlaada Chvatil), this game is at heart a deduction-word game for large groups of people.
In Codenames, you have a set of 25 words arranged in a grid. Each belongs to either one of two teams, neutral or a single assassin (which is instant loss, to discourage random guessing). Each team (or if <3 players, one team) has a spymaster who gives a clue and number that relates to the words on their side. It goes each way until one team wins.
This game is an awesome party game and filler. The addition of the assassin is great to keep tension throughout the game. It is pretty easy to pick up for allot of players. There isn't really that much to say about this game. It is great and simple and really good to bring out with a full range of players (people who don't play to really experienced gamers).
However, its strong points are also some of its weaker points. The rules are simple, but that means that players keep trying to twist them. Every game has had people not able to keep quiet and just let the game go. It isn't that hard to know that the spymaster can only give one clue and if the clue is a dud (a homonym that wasn't spelled out, a word no-one knows the meaning of), it is a wasted clue. This means that the choice of spymaster is very important, and I already have a list of people I don't want to be spymaster.
These problems wouldn't be that bad, but the game is really quite fun and engaging so it is sometimes used as more than just a filler. When this turns into the main gaming event of the night, having these problems continuously happen during the night quickly sours the game experience. At the end, I would still prefer to play this with smaller groups (and 2 and 3 player works really, really well- even better than competitive in some respects) and definitely not as a main course.
Codenames is a great little game. It is at its best with smaller groups and used as a filler. However, this game is mostly a victim of its own success. The problems mostly stem from their own success (it tends to stay out too long and people keep trying to bend the rules) that is currently holding it back in my opinion.
3.5 out of 5 Hidden Waffles.
In Codenames, you have a set of 25 words arranged in a grid. Each belongs to either one of two teams, neutral or a single assassin (which is instant loss, to discourage random guessing). Each team (or if <3 players, one team) has a spymaster who gives a clue and number that relates to the words on their side. It goes each way until one team wins.
This game is an awesome party game and filler. The addition of the assassin is great to keep tension throughout the game. It is pretty easy to pick up for allot of players. There isn't really that much to say about this game. It is great and simple and really good to bring out with a full range of players (people who don't play to really experienced gamers).
However, its strong points are also some of its weaker points. The rules are simple, but that means that players keep trying to twist them. Every game has had people not able to keep quiet and just let the game go. It isn't that hard to know that the spymaster can only give one clue and if the clue is a dud (a homonym that wasn't spelled out, a word no-one knows the meaning of), it is a wasted clue. This means that the choice of spymaster is very important, and I already have a list of people I don't want to be spymaster.
These problems wouldn't be that bad, but the game is really quite fun and engaging so it is sometimes used as more than just a filler. When this turns into the main gaming event of the night, having these problems continuously happen during the night quickly sours the game experience. At the end, I would still prefer to play this with smaller groups (and 2 and 3 player works really, really well- even better than competitive in some respects) and definitely not as a main course.
Codenames is a great little game. It is at its best with smaller groups and used as a filler. However, this game is mostly a victim of its own success. The problems mostly stem from their own success (it tends to stay out too long and people keep trying to bend the rules) that is currently holding it back in my opinion.
3.5 out of 5 Hidden Waffles.
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