Review: Power Rangers Megaforce "Stranger Ranger"

     Now that we have five episodes, we need the obligatory "fake ranger" episode.  Basically, this guy is pretending to be the Red Ranger and there is a monster attack.  The Ranger prevent the poor asshole from being killed.  Then they fight the monster, it gets big, they kill it with the Megazord...and that's it.
     I want to review this, but there is nothing to review.  It is, once again, predominantly Sentai footage (poorly cut Sentai footage at that) with voice-overs.

I'm going to give this episode a 7.5/10 only because the footage was very poorly cut.  Other than that, Samurai had better plot development.

Review: Adventure Time "The Great Bird Man"

     For the first time since "Little Dude" in early February, we get an actual Finn and Jake-centric episode that doesn't make me feel like I was forced to take Nyquil.  In this episode, Finn and Jake meet a reformed Goblin King in the Badlands who claims he has changed.  This is due to a wizard stealing his eyes.  Finn and Jake, thinking he is reformed, give him his eyes back and he relapses like a meth-head on Breaking Bad.  In a semi-anticlimactic ending that still retained the Adventure Time charm, the Goblin King retreats.
     The episode was good and it was very similar to the old style of Adventure Time.  My only complaint was the ending.  The Goblin King manages to go through all these dynamic stages and manages to end with "Oh, well, I fucked up."
     Sorry about the short review, I have a Political Theory test tomorrow as well as the fact that I have a Power Rangers Megaforce review, two Pokemon reviews, an announcement, and two op-eds to do.  Plus, I really don't see that much recurring from the story here in the long term considering it wrapped up the story with the Goblin King nicely.  On the 25th however, with "Simon and Marcy," that should, SHOULD, be a good review.

Final Rating: 9.25/10 (Holy shit, he went to the hundredths place)

Review: Adventure Time "Vault of Bones"

     Well, this was a nice recovery from "Bad Little Boy."  This episode was the most recent to address Flame Princess and Finn's relationship and, it did a pretty good job.  It picks up with Finn trying to change Flame Princess's alignment to good from evil, despite her father trying to keep her evil.  So Finn decides to take Flame Princess into a dungeon so she could get interested in Finn's interests.  However, she gets bored and does not find the enjoyment that Finn does at these tasks.  Eventually, after Finn tells her to do what she likes, she starts burning things down and destroying things with fire.
     It was a cute, well timed episode, intended on keeping the whole Finn/Flame Princess relationship relevant to the viewer.  It was also interesting because it showed the whole conflict of personalities between Finn and Flame Princess.

In all, it was a good recovery from the episode with Fiona and Cake and thus is rated a 9.5/10

Final Rating: 9.5/10
Rating Compared to other Flame Princess episodes: 8.5/10

Review: Silver Linings Playbook (movie)

     Today, I decided to go and see just why Jennifer Lawrence deserved her Academy Award for best actress.  Granted, if she didn't win, I would seriously doubt the legitimacy of the system if she didn't win, purely based on who the other nominees were.  I'm not saying that Naomi Watts is a bad actress, I'm saying that movies such as Zero Dark Thirty are not the kind of movies that spring winners in the "Best Actress in a Leading Role" category.  Now, as for the movie, it is about a man who's wife cheated on him, and he beat up the man she cheated with.  He is put into a mental institution as a result and he is released.  He meets a girl who has issues of her own, and they help to rehabilitate each other through dance.  I will break down the rating of the movie into categories and average it for the score.

Plot-9/10: The movie, despite taking place over months, does a good job pacing the movie so there isn't a lag moment.  The flashbacks are well timed and are used to illustrate the back story.  My main complaint is the fact that there is, to a certain extent, an element of unrealistic situations when the same police officer always deals with him.  To a point, such as domestic disturbances and other calls to the house are understandable, however the same cop responding at the movie theater on Halloween came off as either the cop is stalking him or all of Philadelphia has one police officer. Also, at the Eagles/Giants game, the police took far too long to respond to a brawl at a tailgate.

Acting-10/10: Everyone has already beaten to death how good Jennifer Lawrence was in this movie, so I won't spend too much time on that topic.  She did a good job portraying a depressed widow and she does a good job conveying emotion, something that most current actors cannot do.  She has command of the stage when she is on it as she demands all the attention.  Bradley Cooper does a good job portraying the crazy guy fighting to get his wife back.  However, when he is in a scene with Robert De Niro or Jennifer Lawrence, he is overshadowed.  Robert De Niro is great in this movie.  He plays a bookie who is trying to make the money to open a restaurant.  He does his usual style of acting, making him appear as if he is in a continuation of Goodfellas.

Characters-8/10:  The characters are deep.  We get extensive knowledge into their back-stories and why they act as they do.  They are not stock, static characters, they are new and exciting and dynamic in their personalities.  My issue is the amount of drive that Pat has toward his ex-wife.  Personally, if my wife cheated on me, I wouldn't try to get her back.  I accept that the man is insane but still, there is not enough effort on the part of everyone else around him to try and make him accept the fact that, while he was in a mental institution, she moved on.  Also, the fact that no one says "Listen, she cheated on you, move on" bothered me a lot.

Final Rating: 9/10

This was a great movie and, at this point, wait for it to come out on DVD.  There are too many fans of The Hunger Games going to see this movie now.

Review: Power Rangers Megaforce "Going Viral"

     The first character-centric episode of the season is always a big occasion.  It is the first opportunity for the new writing staff to depart from the formulaic opening and begin character development.  This episode, did not seize that opportunity.  In my opinion, where the Mighty Morphin' episodes of the same type provided insight into the character (the first example that comes to mind is Zack with his hip-hop fighting style, which in hindsight was incredibly racist), this one was merely used to teach a simple lesson to children.    I do commend it however for not taking the Disney Channel Approach and saying "today's lesson will be..." and at the end saying "today's lesson was..." However, if you did make a drinking game out of the episode and took a shot everytime Noah said "I believe in myself" in some form, you would die of alcohol poisoning. I think that too much of the episode is devoted to the fighting, something that was apparent from last week's episode, but I wanted to give it a chance.

Rating: 7.5/10
Spoiler: Noah got new zords and the Sea Gosei Great Megazord was unveiled.

Adventure Time News

     To those of you who like the television show Adventure Time, there is news.  First of all, next week's epiosde "Vault of Bones" is centered around Finn trying to turn Flame Princess good, against her father's wishes.  The trailer shows a few things that are of note.  Finn's demon sword is back as well as the fact that he is wearing a gauntlet.  There is no news as to the significance of this.  Also, more on the technical side, music writer and storyboard artist Rebecca Sugar is receiving her final credit as storyboard artist in the episode "Simon and Marcy" which should air, if there is no break, on March 11th.  However, I have a feeling that there will be a break or the episode will be pushed back.  Rebecca Sugar writes most of the songs from the show including "I'm Just Your Problem", "I Remember You", "Nuts" and "Fry Song."  Her role in creating music in the future is unknown, however, she will no longer be writing episodes.  To get a feeling for how much of a loss that is, here is a list of episodes written by her:

201: It Came from the Nightosphere
207: Power Animal
211: The Chamber of Frozen Blades
215: The Real You
218: Susan Strong
225: Mortal Folly
302: Morituri te Salutamus
309: Fiona and Cake
310: What was Missing
314: Beautopia
316: Jake vs. Me-Mow
326: Incendium
401: Hot to the Touch
406: Daddy's Little Monster
412: Gotcha!
416: Burning Low
419: Lady and Peebles
425: I Remember You
502: Jake the Dog
511: Bad Little Boy
Unaired: Simon and Marcy

Pretty big loss if you ask me.

UPDATE: Having just seen the extended Season 5 preview, clips from the episode "Simon and Marcy" are in it.  See the video below:

Review: Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories/RE: Chain of Memories

     The sequel to Kingdom Hearts was released, not for the PS2, but for the Game Boy Advance.  The name: Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories.  The game picks up where Kingdom Hearts leaves off and you are plunged into the eccentric world that is Castle Oblivion.  Here, you are confronted with 13 floors where each one is a different world taken from Sora's memories and you need to complete the floors and fight numerous enemies including Axel, Marluxia, Vexen, Larxene, and even Riku.  The game introduces a new fighting system that is played like the card game "war" where you play cards and your card is "broken" if the opponents play a higher level card.  Upon completion of the game, you unlock "Reverse/Rebirth Mode" where you get to play through Riku, starting on the lowest basement and working up to the first floor.  The events of both stories lead directly into Kingdom Hearts II.  In terms of plot, the story is just as good as the games after it and before it.  The most common complaint is the card system and that is easily figured out by the end of the first floor.  My main complaint was that "100 Acre Wood" made the cut while the world based on Tarzan did not, when "Deep Jungle" is an integral part of Kingdom Hearts's story.

Overall: 8.5/10