We’re well into the age of "Movie Sequels and Series and Nothing Else". Complaining about it won’t go away. They’re low risk and usually high profit. This is how Hollywood is right now, and there’s nothing we can do about that.
So it’s important to take a look at how hard it is to make a sequel, using two recent movies as examples of how to do it, and how not to do it.
Early this week we sadly lost Sir Roger Moore, one of the great suave actors. Instead of trying to compare him to the other actors who played Bond (pointless), I’ll instead rank his Bond movies, from least best to most awesome (slightly less pointless).
Legion is the best show I’ve seen in a long time. Incredibly creative, fascinating to look at, and tremendously fun. Here’s a non-spoilery look at the first season.
The core Just Cause 3 game came out at the tail end of December… 2015. Throughout 2016 several DLCs came out. Clearly, I missed all of them. What’s the point in talking about this game now? Well, it is fun so if you missed it, here's why you should check it out.
What’s interesting to me, however, is how the game is fun. You see, there’s absolutely no challenge to it. Your character is essentially invincible and immortal. There’s no death penalty, you have essentially unlimited ammo and explosives, and despite sort of taking place in the real world, your character can basically fly.
Is it fair to review something that’s still in beta (alpha, even?). Since anyone can play it, and they’re still accepting money if you want to give it, I’d say yeah.
But I’ll clarify now this isn’t a judgement. This is the simplest definition of “review.” Perhaps “checking it out so you don’t have to” would be a better description.
So how goes the biggest crowdfunded project ever? It goes quite well, actually.