eXistensZ

I love videogames and movies. However, I have a difficult time disengaging my mind whenever it comes to switching between both mediums. I could be watching a movie and thinking to myself how game mechanics can be incorporated from certain sequences rather than enjoying the film on it's own merits. I can be playing a video game and thinking to myself how it would transition to film. Being a college student going into his final semester, my biggest career struggle is deciding whether or not I want to go into the games industry or the film industry. As a result, it is sometimes hard for me to immerse myself in the escapist lands both these mediums provide without feeling like I am wasting my time.

With eXistensZ, I was fully engaged from beginning to end. Released in 1999, the film is set in the future where virtual reality gaming is the best thing since sliced bread. The film centers around game designer Allegra Geller on the run from assassins after previewing her latest game. Her sole companion is the technophobic, neurotic Ted Pikul, who is forced to confront his fears in order to help Allegra get to safety and save the original copy of her game. 

The film itself is standard thriller fare, yet David Cronenberg leaves enough of his signature style on it to be able to tell it's one of his films. How many techno-thrillers have fleshlight-looking game systems that jack into your spine or pistols made out of fish bones that use teeth as their main ammunition source?  The film features a star-studded cast including Willem Dafoe, Christopher Eccleston, and the late Ian Holm. The scenes inside the titular game discuss game logic and the intentions of the NPCs in regards to plot and character. 

The Best Games I Played in 2020

This year found many people turning to videogames for comfort during these stressful pandemic times. Yours truly was no exception.

The Last of Us Part II

If we're comparing videogames to movies, The Last of Us Part II may very well be this year's The Last Jedi. It's deconstruction of the revenge genre and borderline sadomachistic story doesn't always work, but it still contains the excellent writing, gameplay and motion-capture performances Naughty Dog is known for.

Ghost of Tshuhima

An ode to samurai films and Japan in general, this action-adventure game is a much more suitable game for those who may have been turned off by The Last of Us Part II, 

Paper Mario: The Origami King

Stop comparing this game to The Thousand Year Door and enjoy it for some of the funniest writing I've ever encountered in a game.

Control

Remedy Entertainment has always ben known for it's cinematic action-adventure game but Control may be it's apex in that regard. Issues on my base PS4 aside, the game features an excellent New Weird world with expert storytelling and gameplay that has more than a few nods to the studio's previous work.

Doom Eternal

Doom Eternal is to Doom what Fury Road was to Mad Max. Bigger, better and more exciting than ever.

Hades

Beloved for their games that combine unique storytelling with addictive gameplay, Supermassive Games have made their best game yet in Hades, a roguelike ARPG that incorporates Greek mythology into it's DNA as you attempt to escape the Underworld. While the gameplay is as fun as it's ever been, the true star of Hades is the cast of characters based on Greek gods that you converse and form bonds with everytime you return to the Underworld.

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Square Enix's multi-part reimagining of it's groundbreaking JRPG suffers from a lot of filler, but when it comes to recreating certain story moments, it absolutely shines.

Yakuza Kiwami 2

If Japanese games are one of my favorite genre in games, the Yakuza series is up there with the best for their  dense open worlds and storytelling that blends serious drama with humor. 

Cobra Kai Season 3

Cobra Kai is one of those shows that sounded like a terrible idea when it was first announced, only to quickly become an overnight sensation. Originally airing on Youtube Red before moving to Netflix for it's third season, the show's basically The Karate Kid: The Next Generation, focusing on the main villain from the original film Johnny Lawrence as he tries to rebuild his life by resurrecting his old dojo and facing opposition from Daniel LaRusso, who believes that Johnny is trying to start up the dojo's bullying creed and creates his own dojo in honor of the deceased Mr. Miyagi. The show quickly won over fans thanks to it's fantastic lead performances in William Zabka and Ralph Macchio, as well as it's solid writing and deconstruction of the original film's black and white morality.

Season 2 ended on a pretty bleak cliffhanger, with an all-out brawl erupting between the Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do students that left Johnny's star pupil and surrogate son Miguel Diaz paralyzed by Johnny's biological son Robby, while John Kreese has taken over the Cobra Kai dojo. The opening episodes of the season do a good job at emphasizing the severity of the fallout, from the entire community being in an uproar over the brawl to Sam's PTSD following her fight with Tory. As Daniel and Johnny try to deal with the damage their feud to has done to their loved ones, Kreese starts to mold his remaining students into the violent mindset he instilled into Johnny back in his youth.

Cobra Kai is pretty ridiculous when you step back and think about it. Two middle-aged high school enemies reliving their old rivalry feels like fodder for a crappy sitcom, but Season 1's writing and performances were good enough for it to feel grounded in reality. While Season 2 suffered flak for it's overemphasis on the show's teenage cast as well as a heavy dose of melodrama, Season 3 smartly turns it's attention back to the adults (for the most part) and their attempts to salvage their ruined lives as well as those that they care about. Scenes like Johnny's attempts to use social media with the aid of Miguel and Daniel's trip to Okinawa work primarily because of the foundation laid in the previous seasons.

That's not to say that this season doesn't have it's flaws. While the elements that make the show work are given ample screen time, certain characters and their storylines are given the short shrift, particularly Robby and Hawk, both of whom undergo character transitions by the season's end that should've been given more breathing room. The gang war between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai reaches new levels of ludicrousness, to the point that there's no good reason why none of the kids or adults ever involve the police. The Sam/Tory feud is a double-edged sword, giving Sam a compelling arc in overcoming her PTSD while robbing the rivalry of any nuance or shades of gray by portraying Tory as a one-dimensional psychopath. The flashbacks depicting Kreese in his Vietnam days feel like they're from another show altogether, a poor attempt to humanize a character who is otherwise a complete sociopath.

But when the show works, it can be insanely fun. The way the characters bounce off of each other is as compelling as ever to watch and there's a large amount of humor in this season, despite the heavy subject matter. The finale is an insane, balls-to-the-walls smorgasbord that perfectly sets up the fourth season. Season 3 of Cobra Kai might not be perfect, but once you give into it's charms, it's like nothing else on television.

The Best Movies and TV Shows I've Watched in 2020

So 2020 was a pretty shit year, huh? On top of the usual drama, we got the COVID pandemic, George Floyd's murder and the most stressful election to be recorded in the history books. Not even our creature comforts were available, thanks to the closing of movie theaters and pretty much every store known to man. Thankfully, we had thousands of movies and shows to watch from Netflix, Hulu, etc.

                                                                MOVIES

Total Number of Films I've Watched: 89

Mad Max Film Series, directed by George Miller

Mad Max: Fury Road, directed by George Miller

Blow Out, directed by Brian De Palma

The Rocky Horror Picture Show, directed by Jim Sharman

House, directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi

I'm Thinking of Ending Things, directed by Charlie Kaufman

The Invisible Woman, directed by Leigh Whannell

Da 5 Bloods, directed by Spike Lee

                                                            TELEVISION

Total Number of Shows I've Watched: 13

                                          1.      Better Call Saul (AMC)

While it's nearly achieved the same level of acclaim as it's predecessor, a common criticism about Better Call Saul is it's slow and methodical pacing in charting the journey of Jimmy McGill to Saul Goodman, as well as the disconnect between that and the Mike storyline that runs parallel. In the show's penultimate season however, showrunners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould finally found a way to organically connect both storylines with the introduction of Lalo Salamanca (played by a delightfully campy Tony Dalton), ramping up the intensity with episodes such as the beautifully written and directed "Bagman". The true MVP this season however proves to be Kim Wexler, whose character takes completely unexpected turns in regards to her relationship with Jimmy and her own decaying morality. This was simply one of the best seasons of television I've ever seen, where every facet from the writing to the acting to the directing was at the top of its game, and the final scene has me waiting on tenterhooks for what will surely be a gangbusters final season.

                                            Friday Night Lights (NBC)

Friday Night Lights isn't an easy show to watch. Too often it puts it's characters through the wringer whether it is by their own poor decisions or unfortunate circumstances. Yet this is also one of the most humanistic shows I've ever watched, a true labor of love that rewards it's viewers with emotional catharsis, whether it's watching the beautiful marriage between the Taylors or Coach Taylor imparting his infinite wisdom to his players.

                                            Lovecraft Country (HBO)

Adapted from the 2016 novel written by Matt Ruff, the first season of Lovecraft Country has the playfulness of genre shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the recently cancelled The Magicians, where each episode truly felt like it's own self-contained experiment, be it a Jordan Peele-esque standoff against a racist cult or a war-torn love story set in Vietnam. While it stumbled towards the end in terms of plot, this was still an excellent show to watch every week.

                                                Bojack Horseman (Netflix)

Netflix's best original series ended early this year in a run of episodes that did not pull any punches in making it's protagonist reap what he sowed across all six seasons. It was often hard to watch, yet felt extremely fitting with the overall tone of the show. 

                                                        Better Things (FX)

Pamela Adlon's Sam might've suffered a midlife crisis this year, but Better Things definitely didn't. From a magical episode set entirely in New Orleans to a scene with the greatest continued use of a slur  since The Wire's infamous "fuck" scene, the show was as much of a masterclass in filmmaking as Season 3 was.

                                            The Mandalorian (Disney+)

The sophomore season of Disney+'s flagship Space Western captured lightning in a bottle twice with a season that appealed to both hardcore Star Wars fans and casual viewers.

Honorable Mentions: The Magicians, Mythic Quest, Rick and Morty

                                

Merry Christmas!

I tried to upload a picture, but I got an invalid response.

The Mandalorian: "The Jedi"

 

This episode has been hyped up for quite some time, due to the expected appearance of Ahsoka Tano. The problem with this episode is how your enjoyment of this storyline will largely fall on your knowledge of Ahsoka and her journey in the Clone Wars and Rebels cartoons (I personally haven't watched a lot of either show but I know enough of Ahsoka  to be interested). Rosario Dawson's performance is extraordinary and her scenes with Mando and Baba Yoda are electrifying, but certain lines of dialogue will fall flat for those that don't know her relationship with Anakin Skywalker or conflict with Grand Admiral Thrawn.

This issue aside, this was easily the best episode of the season since the premiere. Written and directed by Dave Filoni of Rebels fame, "The Jedi" is a stunning marvel of writing and directing, placing enough focus on Ahsoka yet never letting us forget that Mando is the true protagonist of this episode. We also get some nicely handled exposition on Baby Yoda's true name Grogu a well as a reflection on the bond that has grown between both characters. Filoni directs the climatic action sequence with the air of Kurosawa as well as a hint of spaghetti Western (bolstered by a great performance by Michael Biehn of Terminator fame).

Common complaints with the past few episodes were how they mostly seemed like filler. While I admit I have had issues with this as well (despite the acting and production values being as good as they ever were), it's important to remember that Season 1 also had filler episodes. A few weeks ago, Jonathan Lack on Twitter brought up how The Mandalorian breaks traditional TV norms by having each episode focus on a completely different thing with no care for what viewers of traditional serialized television expect. That's an extremely smart observation but as we head into the season's final stretch I'm hoping for more plot movement and a decent payoff to the story threads thus far.

The Mandalorian: "The Marshall"

Given how controversial the Disney era of Star Wars had been received by 2019, The Mandalorian was a breath of fresh air. By telling a simple yet pulpy space Western, Jon Favreau was able to create a show that injected some life into what sadly now feels like a cash cow milked dry.

The most notable thing about Season 1's structure was how most of the episodes were self-contained while introducing new characters and storylines that factored in by the season finale. In terms of that structure, "The Marshall" is an overall by-the-numbers episode of the show, filled with enough action and easter eggs to satisfy it's 54-minute runtime (for the most part). 

There are plenty of comparisons to draw between this episode and last season's "Sanctuary", most notable of all their Seven Samurai inspired plots of enemies banding together to defeat a common evil (in this case a giant sand-burrowing creature that looks like it was ripped straight out of Dune). The titular Marshall Cobb Vanth is portrayed by Timothy Olyphant with all of the gun-slinging charm the actor is best known for, creating a character that serves as a foil to the independent Mando. Some time is spent explaining the backstory of the town and it's conflict with the Jawas before setting up the ambush on the dragon. If anything, the middle portion of the episode sags a bit in establishing the town's conflict with the Jawas and setting up the trap for the Krayt dragon.

As always, the episode excels in its action sequences. The scene at the beginning of the episode with the fighting pit is a classic Western homage with the Mandalorian effortlessly picking off Koresh's men and interrogating him before leaving the criminal to scavengers. The fight with the Krayt dragon is probably the best sequence this show has done yet and Favreau makes a great decision expanding the aspect ratio to highlight the the massiveness of the dragon and sucked me right into the scene.

All in all, "The Marshall" is a good reintroduction to The Mandalorian. Favreau and co. don't seem to be straying from the formula that made Season 1 a success. While the vast runtime of the episode leaves a little to be desired, I have a large amount of goodwill for the remainder of the season.

Notes and Observations:

*There's a nice bit of character development for Mando when he visits Peli's shop and allows her droids to enter his ship, no doubt remembering IG-11's sacrifice from last season.

*Even though a shot during the climax suggests he'll end up playing a pivotal role in killing the Krayt Dragon, Baby Yoda is surprisingly underutilized in this episode. 

*Olyphant's not the only guest actor to appear in this episode. There's also John Leguizamo as the short-lived Koresh, W. Earl Brown (who starred alongside Olyphant in the HBO show Deadwood) as the bartender at Tatooine, and I think we all know who Temura Morrison is playing in the episode's closing moments.