Reaction & Review | Rambo: Last Blood

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we're finally gonna be closing out the Rambo series, as I take a look at the last entry that came out in 2019. That movie is "Rambo: Last Blood".

Now, for those of you who are new here and you've clicked on this review as a new viewer, I'll quickly bring you up to speed. Way back in August, I had started my journey in watching all 5 of the Rambo movies. And so far, I have greatly enjoyed the first 4 movies. Even though the 4th movie was a little bit weak for me, considering the characters were a bit shallow and the special effects involving blood sometimes looked liked shit. But even with those minor quibbles, I still really enjoyed that movie, along with the other 3 films.

We're now at the final entry, and this one I'm very curious about. Mostly because of the fact that we're dealing with an older Rambo here. Which makes sense, considering Stallone's age and all. So I'm curious to see what Stallone can pull off here, despite the man being in his 70's. As for the plot itself, I vaguely remember some girl, who may be a relative to Rambo's, getting kidnapped. At least, that's what I remembered from the trailers I saw back in 2019. Anyway, this causes John Rambo to go on one last mission in order to save her. That's pretty much all I know about the plot to this thing.

The other thing I know about this movie is the supposed "controversy" surrounding the film. I put the quotations there, because most of the "controversy" mainly involved SJW's claiming that the film promotes "toxic masculinity", how it's a supposed "right-wing" movie in the current era of politics, and some reviewers even claiming that the film is too gory and violent, along with being very offensive. And just based off those examples I listed, that tells me that these people have never watched any of the previous Rambo films. Considering that they're action movies, of course they're suppose to be violent. As for the politics, the Rambo films started off as campy 80's action flicks, and any supposed political messages that they may have had were mostly subtle, with the exception of "Rambo III"'s ending. And as for being "too gory" and "offensive", well, I guess they didn't bat an eye when blood was being splattered in the 4th film, along with children being slaughtered on screen. But then again, I suppose it didn't fit in line with their politics, so you can take that for what you will.

Anyway, most of those comments I have heard about the film were pretty fucking stupid. I'm here to see whether or not it's entertaining. And given this series track record so far, I have a very good feeling that this movie will definitely live up to being entertaining. Now I don't know whether or not it's gonna be as good as the previous Rambo films were, but this film could potentially reach those standards, or even surpass them in some way. The only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Rambo: Last Blood".

7 minutes later

Well, guys, now that I've gotten more of a chance to see how these tunnels are laid out, I will say that it actually looks really cool. I'm kinda curious as to how long it took Rambo to build these sorts of tunnels. But then again, considering that he's in retirement, I'm gonna wager a guess here and say that he's had a lot of time on his hands. Still though, these tunnels look really cool.

14 minutes later

Well, I wasn't expecting an answer from Gabrielle's Dad about why he left her and her mother so quickly, but it's pretty much self-explanatory. He didn't care about his wife, even after she died, and he never wanted anything to do with Gabrielle herself. So yeah, that's kind of a douche move from him, but at least it's an explanation.

12 minutes later

You know, guys, somehow, I didn't think it was possible to outdo the ripping of the flesh from the previous film, but Rambo somehow topped that by literally almost pulling out the bone from this guy's neck. Jesus Christ, that is brutal!

15 minutes later

You know, guys, out of all the things I've seen Rambo use as a weapon throughout these films, I think the hammer is probably one of the least threatening weapons so far. Granted, the way he's using it is effective as hell. I'm just kinda surprised that the metal part of the hammer hasn't fallen off yet with how much he's used it in the short amount of time that he's had it in his hand. But hey, whatever gets the job done in Rambo's way, I'm perfectly OK with it.

7 minutes later

Wow. Guys, just when I thought this film couldn't get darker, that moment may have topped it. Granted, I kinda saw it coming, but still...this scene is almost emotionally upsetting.

10 minutes later

OK, THAT is probably one of the most satisfying deaths I've seen in any Rambo film ever! That was fucking awesome, guys.

2 minutes later

Well, I guess it wouldn't be a Rambo movie if we didn't get to see one cool explosion. Granted, that one wasn't as cool as some of the previous explosions from the other films, but still, it definitely was a pretty cool explosion.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Rambo: Last Blood". And we're getting stock footage of "First Blood" playing as the credits start rolling. Interesting. I'll watch this later. Right now, I'm gonna go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Holy shit, that was one of the most satisfying endings to a movie I've seen in a long time. So...I guess that kinda gives away what I thought about the film, overall. I really enjoyed the hell out of this thing. Now do I think it's better than any of the previous movies? Well, I'll get into that later on.

I suppose, now, would be a good time to get into the movie proper by diving right into this review. Let's start with the writing. Now, as per usual with most of the other Rambo films, this movie's story is very straight-forward and to the point. Which is what you mostly need for an action movie such as this. Not only that, but's it's also one of the better revenge films I've seen in a long time. Which isn't saying a whole lot, mind you, considering that a lot of the revenge films I've seen for this series haven't been that good for one reason or another. But for a series like Rambo, it definitely makes this film worth watching even more because of the lengths that John Rambo will go to in order to get revenge against the people who hurt the ones that are close to him. And by the time that it is over, you are going to be satisfied by the film's conclusion, because it definitely does feel like a proper ending to the John Rambo character. Now unless this movie's title ends up becoming bullshit later on, where we end up getting another sequel, I have a feeling that this will most likely be the last Rambo film starring Sylvester Stallone. The only way I would be OK with another Rambo sequel is if Stallone was writing the script, as he has done for all 5 movies. But that's just me theorizing about stuff that may or may not end up happening at all.

Anyway, let's get back to talking about the movie itself. As I just said, this film has a very simple plot that is easy to follow. The story centers around John Rambo, as he's busy enjoying his retirement at his home in Arizona, tending to his work at his farm. And it's where we end up meeting another character named Gabrielle, who's seen as Rambo's adoptive daughter, where she's living with her grandmother. So one night at Rambo's farm, she tells Rambo that her real father was seen in Mexico, because she hasn't seen him ever since she was a child. And she wants to go to Mexico in order to find answers about why he left her and her mother. Her grandmother protests to this, because the way that Gabrielle found out about her father was through a friend of hers that, according to her grandmother, is no good. Even Rambo himself is against Gabrielle going out to Mexico, because it is a very dangerous place around the border area in which the film takes place in. Gabrielle actually fakes it at first, by giving in to her grandmother's demands, and not going to Mexico. And shortly after she leaves Rambo's farm, she turns around and heads to Mexico. And when she gets there, it leads into a series of events where she meets with her friend, in which she leads him to where her father is living at, and Gabrielle eventually learns the truth from her own father, to which I already discussed about earlier. And then it eventually leads to Gabrielle's capture, after her friend takes her to a club, in which it gets John Rambo's attention from his grandmother that she went to Mexico. And from there, Rambo goes on a rescue mission to Mexico in order to find and save her.

Now I could obviously spoil the rest of what happens after that. But honestly, I don't want to go into too much detail about it than I already have, mostly because it would lead into heavy spoilers. Granted, I understand it's still an action film, but this movie really does take the time to develop it's story the best way it can. I will say that, out of all the Rambo films I've seen, this one might be one of the more bleaker films of the series. Granted, the fourth film was also sorta bleak, what with the child slaughtering and all, but this one I feel touches more upon it's bleakness, and I think that it totally works here. Our characters here are, admittedly, not all that developed well. Which, to be fair, most of the other Rambo films didn't have much character depth, anyways, outside of our titled character. I do want to touch upon the Martinez Brothers for just a moment, because there is something that I wanted to comment on about them. Earlier, I mentioned about how this movie was seen by critics as it being supposedly "offensive". And they would mostly point towards the Martinez Brothers, along with their gang, as being portrayed as Mexican stereotypes. Where they kidnap women, sell them into slavery, and mostly use them as their "things" for sex. However, what those critics don't seem to understand is that this is a thing that still happens, in regards to the Mexican Cartels that goes on the Mexico border. And for anyone who keeps up with the news at what goes on down there, they could tell you that horrible stuff like that still happens today. So I can overlook the fact that these characters are really shallow, because characters of that nature don't really need much of any character depth.

As for our other characters, barring the Martinez Brothers, mostly range on being pretty shallow. There's a character named Carmen, who is basically an investigative journalist that is keeping tabs on what the Martinez Brothers do. Mostly because her sister died by their hands, so that's why she's getting as much info as she can about them. Unfortunately, her character is pretty damn shallow, because she only appears in two lengthy scenes where she has dialogue that involves both her and Rambo. But beyond that, she really doesn't play much of a factor into anything else. And as for titled character, I think this might be one of the few Rambo movies where he has the most dialogue for his character. I could be wrong on that, but I think is the one movie where his character gets the most dialogue. And much like the previous movies, you care about what happens to him and you want to see him getting revenge against the bastards who have hurt his loved ones. And without going too much into spoilers here, the final act of the movie is basically "Home Alone" starring Rambo. And unless you've never seen "Home Alone", you know EXACTLY where this is going to end up. How it all leads up to it is something that I won't spoil for you guys here.

So overall, the writing here is really solid. At least, really solid when it comes to the Rambo series. It's not really an original plot, but it totally works for a series like Rambo. And, like I said earlier, it's also a really solid revenge film, too. So yes, guys, the writing here is really good. And to make it even better, the acting is also really solid. Everybody here, whether it's Sylvester Stallone, the actress playing Gabrielle, or even our supposed Mexican stereotypes, all of them turn in great showings. I can't think of a single actor that may have phoned it in. Which is great, because everybody here felt comfortable in their given roles. So yes, guys, without beating a dead horse here, the acting is really solid from the entire cast.

Now let's get into the special effects. Now in the previous film, I talked about how the blood effects kinda took a turn in which they went for more CG blood. And the result for that was a mixed bag at best. Some of the kills involving CG blood looked all right, while other times it looked like shit. And a lot of the kills had it where blood was gushing out like fireworks. In this movie, while there are instances where CG blood was used, it's mostly very few moments where we actually get to see that. Everything else, they went back to using practical blood. And it looks really good here. And being that this is a film that literally has the word 'blood' in it's title, it would make sense where we get to see a ton of blood here. So I'm happy to say that the film certainly lives up to it's title in that regard.

Camerawork here is mostly really good, with a couple of exceptions of some odd camera angles in one scene where it was sort of hard to make out what was going on. But it's mostly minor stuff, really, in terms of camerawork. Lighting here is lit pretty well. The sound-mix here is also mixed well. The score is, unfortunately, the weakest part of the entire series. Mostly because, the previous 4 films had scores that had that Jerry Goldsmith feel to it. Which made sense for the first 3 movies, since Goldsmith was in charge of the music for those first 3 movies. And while the fourth film didn't have Goldsmith attached to it for obvious reasons, the composers were still able to try and match was in the previous 3 movies, in terms of it's score. "Last Blood", unfortunately, does not do that. Aside from MAYBE the final scene of the movie, most of the rest of the music here isn't really that memorable, which is a bit disappointing to say, considering how good the music was for the previous 4 movies.

So, with all that said, guys, am I able to recommend "Rambo: Last Blood"? Oh, absolutely yes! Especially if you were a fan of the previous 4 movies, because this movie will feel right at home for anyone who has kept up with this series up to this point. It is a great finale to an awesome franchise. And as for how I would rank this movie, well, I would say it's definitely better than the fourth "Rambo" film. Again, not to say that the fourth movie is bad. It's just that I feel this movie was slightly written better, in my opinion. Now when I eventually re-watch these movies again on my own time, I think I will have a better clearing as to how exactly I would rank all 5 of these movies. But regardless of where I would rank them, I can definitely say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I can recommend the ENTIRE Rambo series. All 5 of these movies are awesome in their own ways. And I am SO happy that I was able to cover all of them for this series, because I've been wanting to watch all of them for quite a long time. And after watching all of them, I can definitely say that this is a series that is worth picking up. Be it on DVD, Blu-ray, or even 4K. Which I normally don't ever recommend 4K films, but I'll make an exception here. Wherever you can find this series, pick it up. It is most definitely worth your time, especially if you are an action movie fanatic. This series is fucking amazing. And on an off note, I do know that there are a couple of prequel comics that are tie-ins to "First Blood" that are being made. One of them is being written by Sylvester Stallone himself, so I'm gonna look into that and see if I can somehow get my hands on a copy of those comics. But anyway, guys, I'm definitely gonna be keeping all 5 of these movies for my DVD collection, in case I'm ever in the mood for some really awesome action movies.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Dead Space: Aftermath

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an animated movie from 2011. That movie is "Dead Space: Aftermath".

Now, a couple of weeks ago, I reviewed the first, and only other, "Dead Space" animated movie from 2008. And I thought it was...kinda average, at best. It wasn't really horrible, but it wasn't anything special, either. It certainly did felt like I was watching something that came from the "Dead Space" video game series. But the things that held it back for me were the characters feeling very shallow and lifeless, the CG, at least when it comes to stuff such as ships, looked like it came from the late 90's, and Jim Cummings turning in the worst performance of his entire voice acting career. Which is something that I still didn't think was possible, but that movie proved to me that Jim Cummings is not immune to sucking every once and a while.

So now we have this movie, which, much like the first movie, is another tie-in to the Dead Space video game series. And from what little I do know about the plot, it takes place shortly after events of the first game. So I'm kinda curious to see where they go from there. Now, something else about this movie seems a little bit odd. You see, when I decided to cover both of the Dead Space animated movies, I was gonna watch both of them on YouTube. And I did that with the first movie. The second movie, though, I had to watch it somewhere else online. The reason why revolves around the movie's questionable runtime. See, the version on YouTube that I found runs at about 71 minutes long, which I didn't really think much of at the time. But when I started to do the minimal amount of research going into this movie, I found on Google that the movie itself has a runtime of 90 minutes. So, I had to abandon that idea and find the movie on another site that I could watch it on. And the only version that I could find was on Tubi TV, which is where I'm gonna be watching the movie tonight on.

Now you might be thinking that since I found the movie on a different website, everything's fine, right? Well...not exactly. See, when I was trying to find the movie on a different site to watch it from, just about everyone of them was advertising this movie to run about 77 minutes long. And yet, as I mentioned earlier, the runtime that I found when I first looked this movie up on Google, it stated that the film's runtime was 90 minutes long. So, I gotta ask: Where's the rest of the footage? If it's really 90 minutes long, where exactly is the rest of the footage that claims that it's running at about 90 minutes long, so that way, I can go and watch it from there? Normally, guys, I usually complain about a movie's runtime if it's running shorter than usual, or if the movie feels too long, but very rarely, do I ever complain about a movie where I can't find the rest of the footage that's supposed to be the runtime that it was trying to advertise itself to be.

But anyway...I'm gonna try to ignore all that, because, regardless of the movie's questionable runtime, I can at least still watch it. So, there is that. And I'm hoping for it to be pretty good. I don't know if that's gonna be the case or not, but who knows? This movie could surprise me in some way. And the way only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is even worth watching at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Dead Space: Aftermath".

6 minutes later

Guys, I understand it's still early for me to be saying this, but I have to comment on this movie's usage of CG. Everything, so far, from the armored soldiers, the ships, everything regarding that looks great...at least, until I get to see models for some of the human faces and the way that they move looks really off-putting and ugly. And the worst part about this is that I'm probably gonna have to get use to these ugly models for the next hour and 10 minutes or so.

6 minutes later

So hold on a fucking second here! This entire flashback that Kuttner is having is being told through traditional animation. And just based off the minute that I'm seeing it here, this animation looks really fucking good. Why the hell aren't we getting this kind of animation throughout the entire movie instead of that god-awful-looking CG that I just witnessed earlier?! That makes no sense at all, guys.

12 minutes later

You know, guys, I really wish I had more to say, regarding the story and everything, but I still can't get over how truly awful the CG looks, each time that this movie switches back from traditional animation to CG. I know I've kept beating this horse so far, but trust me when I say that I'm gonna have plenty to talk about when it comes to this movie's animation by the time the film's done.

8 minutes later

All right, that was something new. We just had two people killed by lava fire, and that second death basically involved that guy having lava fire bursting out from his helmet. That was actually really, cool. I will say that much.

30 seconds later

And I just saw someone getting squished by a piece of the planet's rocks in a pretty bloody fashion. That was actually even cooler than the death I just saw a moment ago. So yeah, this movie definitely knows how to kill it's characters off in a brutal fashion.

15 minutes later

I'm really sorry, guys, that I have to keep mentioning this, but it's about the animation again. I am gonna say that this type of animation that I'm seeing right now looks awesome. It seriously is the most detailed type of animation I've seen up to this point. But with that, it's also showing a LOT of inconsistencies with it's design choices. And I'll explain more about that when this film is done. Again, I really wish I had more to say about the quality of the film's story, but the animation is what's really holding me back here from doing that.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Dead Space: Aftermath". Let me shut the movie off here...OK. Um...dear lord, where do I even start with this movie?

You know what? I know EXACTLY what I want to start with. I've been beating this horse throughout this entire Reaction & Review, so I may as well start with the biggest problem that this movie has. Let's start with the animation. I'm going to assume that this movie was meant to act as an anthology film. Because we're seeing these perspectives of what happened after the disastrous events of the Aegis 7 from the four surviving members of our main characters that we're suppose to follow. And through these events, we get different types of traditional animation that goes along with how their stories play out. And all of that sounds fascinating...IF it were an actual anthology film. However, from what little research I did on this movie, there was no mention at all about this movie being an anthology film. It plainly advertises itself as a pure sci-fi horror movie. So because of that, I am not going to count this as a traditional anthology film, because most anthology films usually have their own stories and segments that normally don't have any connections with each other, outside of having some kind of framing device. This movie is telling a straight-laced story with characters that are explaining the events of what happened after the first Dead Space game that all connect with each other through different types of animation. And honestly, if we constantly didn't switch back and forth from the god-awful CG to the different types of 2D animation, and we had just stuck solely with the 2D animation, I wouldn't have had very many problems with it. But because this movie decided to go with different animation styles, I have to make it the top priority first, because it honestly brings down most of, if not the entire movie. At least, for me, anyway.

To begin with, let's start with the horrendous CG. If you'll recall my review of "Dead Space: Downfall", the issues I had with the CG in that movie mostly consisted of the ships and some of the interior designs of it looking like it came out of the late 90's. Well...it's looking a hell of a lot better now, especially when compared to the god-awful CG that was utilized for this movie. This kind of CG looks like the kind of shit that resembles the mid-90's cartoons that were trying to experiment with CG animation. Shit, guys, "Beast Wars" had better fucking CG animation than this shit did. But then again, "Beast Wars" also had better designs that stayed consistent from episode to episode, and was also decently animated for it's time. Sure, it's dated by today standards, however, "Beast Wars" also came out in 1996. This son of a bitch, on the other hand was released in 2011! There is no excuse to have CG that looks this fucking bad. The only two bright spots to come out of the CG animation for this movie are the armored soldiers and the ships. Everything else looks like shit. The models on the human's faces look terrible, the mouth movements look kinda janky, and when compared to the traditional animation that's used for the different segments, it looks even WORSE. Especially in certain moments where the character designs don't really stay consistent with each other.

In fact, let's go straight into the next big issue with this movie's animation: the inconsistencies. Oh dear heavenly fuck, where the hell do I even start with this...? Well, let's begin with the character designs. Now, as I stated earlier, this movie's trying to present itself by having our main characters tell the events of what happened during the Aegis 7 incident through their perspectives, thus is how we get the different types of 2D animation for these segments. And I will say that all of these 2D segments are animated very well, and the art style for each of these segments looks really good. But then comes the switch between the animation styles, and that's where the inconsistencies come in. I mentioned earlier about how the human faces on the CG models look terrible. And that's because most of, if not all of them have no wrinkles on their faces. You may get BRIEF glimpses of it, but for the most part, wrinkles on the characters faces in CG don't exist. But in each of the traditionally animated segments, all of our main characters have some kind of wrinkles on their faces, thus making it look a little more realistic in detail. The only thing that's present on the CG models is when you get to see some blood splatter on two of them. But everyone else looks plain as hell. The only character that comes even close to staying consistent from CG to traditional animation is Alejandro. The two things that make him stand out about his model are the fact that he has a little bit of facial hair under his lip, and that he has one arm missing, which is briefly explained in his own segment. The only real inconsistency during his segment is that, apparently, he went from being a Caucasian in the first segment to having mostly brown skin in the second segment. Which is rather odd, considering that the rest of the segments involving him, he mostly stayed as a Caucasian. But beyond that, he mostly stays consistent with his design.

But as for everyone else...no. Kuttner, who is the only black guy on the team, apparently had a muscular change from the last segment from 2D to CG, because during the CG segments that he's in, his muscular structure is almost non-existent. Where in the last 2D segment, his muscle structure made him looked like he had recently been to the gym, because he was PACKED with muscles. His dead daughter also went from wearing a white dress and having long hair from the first segment to having a pigtail and pink overalls in the CG segment. So that's one pair of inconsistencies involving him. Isabel's only inconsistency comes from at the end of Nolan Stoss's perspective, in which she had a light pinkish eyeliner that was applied to her. In the rest of the segments that she was in, the eyeliner is completely non-existent. So why the hell she needed it to begin with is beyond my understanding. Speaking of Stross, he has the most inconsistencies out of all our main characters. And it mostly has to do with his hair. You see, in the CG segments, he's shown to have brown hair with a few spikes pointing downwards. But in the rest of the stories, his hair changes a lot. In the first two segments, he had black hair. But by the third and fourth segment, he apparently had a 5 o'clock shadow, because before then, there was NO indication that he had any kind of facial hair whatsoever. Also, from between the first two stories and the latter two stories, he apparently had the same problem as Alejandro, in which his skin color also changes from him being white to having brown skin. So yeah, out of all the main characters that had drastic character designs, Stross is the one who mostly had an identity crisis.

But that's not compared to the one character who could not stay consistent throughout this entire movie. That dishonor goes to the captain. You see, the captain in this movie has one major character trait that makes him stand out the most. Which would be his scar that is present around his left eye. In the first segment, he's shown to have one big scar that almost looks like a lightning bolt. In the second segment, the scar he has changes to just almost looking like a straight line. You can KINDA see there is a small curve there, but it's still mostly a straight line. The third segment, however, changes that COMPLETELY! Because, and I'm not kidding when I say this, his scar is completely gone! Like, what the fuck happened to his scar?! Did he just magically get it healed at some point that I wasn't made aware of? I don't know what happened, but that shit completely threw me off, because that's the one thing that made him recognizable. And the saddest part about that is that the third segment, as I mentioned earlier, has some of the most detailed 2D animation I have seen in a long time. And yet, so for some dumbass reasoning, the animators couldn't be asked to give him a scar that made this one character stand out. Oh, but don't worry! Because in the fourth segment, his scar is present once again on him, as if to quickly correct what was missing from him in the third segment. So don't worry about the bizarre reasoning as to WHY his scar went completely missing from the third segment, it's back in the fourth segment as if it never truly went away.

Good god, guys...I have not spent this much time talking about animation before in a movie. But this movie is the one exception where the animation actually kinda breaks the movie here. I honestly would've not minded having different types of animation for these segments, if not for the fact that NOBODY tried to stay a little bit consistent with these character designs. And it probably would've been a lot better, too, if we had scrapped the god-awful CG animation and stuck with the 2D animation. If they seriously wanted to work in CG, at least stick it with shit like the ships and such, much like the first movie did. Sure, the CG wasn't great in the first Dead Space movie, but at least it didn't interfere too much with the 2D animation that was present there. This thing, however, does not work with the changing of animation styles. Like I just said, either stick with one type of animation (preferably traditional), or stay fucking consistent with your character designs. Otherwise, you get all the problems that are present within this movie.

So...with that all said, let's finally get into the writing. I will say that, on a narrative perspective, this movie's premise is perfectly fine. As I mentioned before, it's about four surviving members talking about the events of what happened after the events involving the Aegis 7 and how severely fucked up it was, since Kuttner was the one who technically started all this, mostly because of his dead daughter that he still laments. So much so that when he first find remnants of the Artifact that he gains possession of, he begins to lose his mind due to the corruption coming from it. And from there, it all goes downhill, as everyone else recounts the events from their perspectives. So again, on a narrative perspective, the movie's actually OK. Admittedly, it's not really explained as to how Kuttner's daughter died. Maybe she died from an attack from the Necromorphs, but who knows? But anyway, I will also say that the characters, even though they were mostly kinda shallow and flat, still had a little bit of energy and life to their characters. Granted, that's not a saying a whole lot, considering that there weren't any characters worth caring about in the first movie, but I can at least see that this movie tried to put in that small amount of effort into making these characters stand out a bit. However, the downside to all this is that since this movie is tied into the Dead Space video games, any newcomers to this series will probably be totally lost as to what's going on here. So on that end, if you seriously want to get into the Dead Space series without having to play the games first, then your best bet would be to try and watch the first animated Dead Space movie before you dive right into this one.

Now as for the acting, well...it's OK. I mean, it's not great by any stretch, but I certainly wouldn't call it terrible. I would say it's almost on par with the first movie's acting, where they're both decent. I may give the acting a slight edge here to this one, mostly because of Jim Cumming's performance in the first movie being complete shit. So overall, the acting here is decent for what it is. I've already talked about the animation in far greater detail than I already have, so there's obviously no reason to go into that again. The sound-mix here is mixed fine. The music here is, mostly, very forgettable. I couldn't really think of anything that stood out to me, other than Kuttner's dead daughter singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Which sounded kinda terrible, to be honest with you. But other than that, the music here is nothing to write home about.

So yeah, guys...when all is said and done, can I recommend "Dead Space: Aftermath"? Oh dear lord, um...honestly...shit, this is actually really difficult to recommend. Well, again, if you really want to get into these two animated movies, then your best bet would be to start off with "Dead Space: Downfall" before you watch this one. But honestly, the one thing that may hold you back from ever watching this thing is the interchangeable styles of animation that this movie goes through. That, coupled with the fact that the character designs are very inconsistent between the traditionally animated segments will almost definitely pull you out of the movie. And by that point, I would just say go play the first Dead Space video game and just ignore these movies entirely. Unless if you're, somehow, a die-hard fan of this series, then there's absolutely no reason for you to watch these movies. You can easily skip them and you wouldn't be missing a thing. I, personally, won't be watching these movies a second time, because neither of them are really even that good anyways. At least, to me, they're not. Oh, and more one thing. If you seriously have to watch this movie, do not watch it on Tubi TV like I foolishly did. Why? Because there were ads that popped up at least 3 or 4 different times as the movie went on, and they were all unskippable. Go find it on DVD or Blu-ray, because at least you won't get interrupted by unnecessary ads. But that's only if you seriously want to risk spending money buying these movies. Which I won't, thankfully, because both these movies are just that forgettable. Now...I'm gonna go and watch a proper anthology movie. I think I'll go and re-watch my copy of "Batman: Gotham Knight". Which, in my opinion, is a much better constructed anthology film, and is miles better than what I just watched for the last hour, almost hour and a half, what with the retarded ads and all.

And with that, guys, we finally come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Rambo

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we continue the Rambo series by checking out the fourth entry that came out in 2008. That movie is "Rambo".

Now I suppose the first thing you might be thinking of, just looking at that title, is why is this thing just called "Rambo"? Why is it not called something like "Rambo IV" or "Rambo: Part 4 The Next Blood"? Well, the answer is a little bit complicated. You see, the original title of this movie was supposed to be called "John Rambo". However, Stallone himself admitted, in an interview, that he thought that title would persuade people into thinking that it would be the last Rambo movie ever made, thanks to the movie "Rocky Balboa", which was released 2 years prior to this movie and is technically the last movie to star Rocky Balboa. I've heard rumors that there's another Rocky film in development, however, until I see proof of this, "Rocky Balboa" is pretty much the last film to star Stallone's boxing character.

But anyway, I'm getting off track here by talking about Rocky. I should be getting back to talking about this film's title. Now I also heard that there was another title for this movie that didn't make the cut, which was called "Rambo: To Hell and Back". Which, in my opinion, sounds like a REALLY cool title, and I'm kinda disappointed that they didn't go with that title. However, due to some online backlash from fans, they changed the title to just "Rambo". A little bit of trivia, though, the title "John Rambo" was used for the fourth movie in some countries, because the first Rambo movie, AKA "First Blood", was simply known as "Rambo". And for us, the title "Rambo" was used for this fourth installment. Which is still kind of a stupid title, because "Rambo: To Hell and Back" sounded like a much better title they could've used. Or hell, they could've just called it "Rambo IV" or something. I don't know, and at this point, I don't care. I finally get a chance to see this movie for myself, and that's all that really matters to me.

Now setting aside the long complicated story about that title, let's get into what I know about the film itself going in. For starters, I don't really know much about the plot itself, outside of the fact that it stars Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo once again. And this film sort of stands out, because where the first 3 movies were made in the 80's, this one came out 20 years after "Rambo III", and I'm not entirely sure where you can go from here. But that's where Stallone himself comes in, because unlike the previous 3 movies where they were directed by different people, this one was written and directed by Sylvester Stallone. Now yes, he did co-write the previous 3 movies, but I don't know how much creative control he had back then since he wasn't a director for any of the previous films. This one, though, he has full creative control for this fourth installment, and I'm curious to see what he can do with his vision on where he wants to take Rambo in.

So, with all this in mind, I'm hoping for this movie to be pretty good. I don't know if it's gonna reach the same kind of quality as the 3 previous movies did, but if it can still be as entertaining as they were back then, then that's all that really matters to me. So the only way I'm gonna find out where this movie is really gonna go from here, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Rambo".

3 minutes later

O..K...well, we're certainly starting off this movie with a bang, as I just saw someone literally blow up from running in that field. I totally wasn't expecting that to happen, but here we are. Oh, and they're all literally being gunned down, too, by these soldiers that I've heard a little bit about from a moment ago. So yeah, guys, we're definitely off to a rather interesting start.

18 minutes later

Holy shit...! Well...I think I can safely say that Rambo definitely hasn't lost a step when it comes to his shooting. God damn, that last shot to the head was fucking brutal.

8 minutes later

Guys, I've seen a lot of messed up things since watching the Rambo movies. This may possibly be one of the darkest moments I've ever seen in any Rambo film ever. This really is messed up, guys. I'm just gonna throw that out there.

10 minutes later

I'd like to say right now, guys, that I'm already beginning to despise this fucking Aussie. I want him to die in the most brutal way possible by the time this movie's done. And I'm not gonna be too happy if he either gets out of this unscathed or he dies in a rather anti-climatic way.

9 minutes later

You guys remember when I said earlier that Rambo hadn't lost his edge when it came to his shooting? Well, that statement stands true, as he took out all of those soldiers by himself with perfect accuracy from his bow and arrow. That was pretty fucking awesome!

12 minutes later

OK, that's new. I've never seen Rambo choke someone so hard that he's able rip their flesh afterwards when they die. I never would've known that, personally, but hey, you learn something new everyday, don't ya?

4 minutes later

All right, guys, I have good news and I have bad news. The bad news is that the Aussie that I mentioned earlier is still alive. The good news, however, is that he now has a broken leg. So, not exactly what I asked for, but I'll happily take what I can get at this point.

5 minutes later

OK then...I was wondering what the hell Rambo was gonna do with the only claymore mine that he borrowed earlier. Well, suffice to say, I can add that one to the count of awesome explosions I've found in the Rambo series so far.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Rambo". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So, where to begin with? Well, going into it, I really didn't know what to expect. And I was curious to see what you could do with a series that had been on the shelf for 20 years. Well, I think I can safely say that, for the most part, this movie is really solid. Granted, this movie does have a couple of problems, but I still think it holds up to being a solid title in the Rambo series.

So let's go ahead and get started with this review by talking about the writing. And I want to start with the movie's tone. You see, for anyone who has seen the 3 previous Rambo movies, some could perceive those movies as just being cheesy 80's action flicks. And that's totally a justifiable claim. As someone, like myself, who had seen the first 3 Rambo films for this series, they definitely do fit that kind of mold. Now mind you, I am not saying that as if it's a bad thing, because they are still mostly well-written action films. Now yes, the plots to those movies weren't exactly original or aiming for something different. But still, they were written well enough for what they wanted to be in terms of action flicks. This movie is really no exception. In fact, I'd say it's almost similar to "Rambo: First Blood Part 2", which I'll talk more about in a bit. But getting back to what I was currently talking about, this movie goes in a much darker direction. Where instead of just being another cheesy action flick, this movie focuses more on the darker elements, such as when we get to see the Burmese Regime just laying waste to citizens in villages, mostly children. Which I will say that if you like children or have some sort of attachment to them, then this movie might end up being a difficult watch for you. Because the movie doesn't shy away from showing the more graphic images of children being slaughtered on screen. And I could totally imagine someone watching this and being horrified by those kinds of scenes, especially if you have any attachments to children. Just wanted to throw that warning out there, in case if you have any interest in watching this movie.

Now I mentioned a moment ago that this movie was almost similar to "Rambo: First Blood Part 2". If you've never seen it, well first off, I've already written a review of it. You can go read more details about what I thought about the movie there. But to give you a brief summarization of that film's plot, Rambo was being sent out to a POW camp in Vietnam, where he was suppose to take photos of any surviving U.S. soldiers that may still be held there. But eventually, Rambo being Rambo, tries to rescue them while trying to avoid being spotted by the Vietnamese soldiers. Now I bring that up, because there's a sequence in this movie that is nearly identical to what was shown in Part 2. In it, we see a mercenary team that Rambo is a part of, as they quietly invade a Burmese camp, in which they have held both women and men hostage. The women are there to be used as sex slaves, while the men are there to be forced into the Burmese army as part of their regime. But that's beside the point. The point is that the entire scene plays out very similarly to what happened in Part 2. Both sequences happen in the rain, while they quietly try to rescue as many people as they can within 15 minutes. The only difference between the two movies is that in Part 2, Rambo was doing it all by himself. Where as this movie has it where Rambo is working with a mercenary team, after a series of events occurs where a medical team ends up getting captured in Burma while they were out trying to offer medical aid to the people there. And eventually, Rambo goes out there himself on a rescue mission to join the mercenaries and try to save the people there that were captured.

Since I just mentioned Rambo himself, let's get into the characters. Now similar to "Rambo III", character depth in this movie does not really exist very much. Most of the characters in this movie, with MAYBE the exception of Rambo, are mostly really shallow and void of personality. The only ones that stand out are the annoying Aussie that complains a lot. The only thing we know about him is that he's out on this mission just so he can support his wife and 3 kids that he has back home. There's also another Aussie that goes by the nickname of "School Boy", and he's also the sniper of the team. And everyone else in the mercenary team goes nameless, and mostly serve as killing fodder. Sarah, the one who convinces Rambo to go along with them, really doesn't have any defining character traits, and the same goes for Michael, who's also the head of the medical team. The only character who's even worth mentioning is John Rambo. He picks up where he left off back in "Rambo III", where he's living his life in solitude in Thailand, and he's really more of a soft-spoken type of character here. Now yes, he had his soft spoken moments in the previous 3 films, but he was still able to be loud when he wanted to be. In this movie, he definitely tones it down a bit. Which, I guess, after 20 years from the previous movie, it would make sense as to why, being that he's been through a lot of shit during his time. So I guess he's justifiable in why he doesn't speak very much in this movie. But still, he can definitely still go at it, when he has to gear up for war, which that part of his character mostly remains intact.

And speaking of still going at it, let's get right into the acting. The acting here is really solid from the entire cast. The only actor who makes a return here is Sylvester Stallone as Rambo. Unfortunately, Richard Crenna does not return here, outside of a dream sequence Rambo has that showcased footage from the previous movies involving Colonel Trautman. And the reason why Crenna doesn't reprise his role is simple. He passed away in 2003, so it was quite a while ago when Crenna passed away long before this movie came out. But despite all that, what we do have for a cast here is really good. And while most of the characters personalities in this movie were ridiculously shallow, they still turned in really awesome showings. And even though I despised that fucking Aussie that would constantly run his mouth, his actor was still able to take that massive dick-headed personality and make it stand out. And the same goes for our star, Sylvester Stallone. He's still able to take whatever minimal dialogue that he was working with and made it work to his character's advantage. So yes, guys, the acting here is really solid from just about the entire cast.

Now let's talk about the special effects. And here is where the film kinda falters a bit. Now being that this movie was made in 2008, we have to work with more modern technology here, which includes stuff like CG, which I'll get to in a second. Now I will say that when it comes to the pyrotechnics, they are done very well. Granted, they are not as prevalent here as what was shown in the previous movies, but it is still a factor here. One particular explosion was done in CG, but it was still pretty good. And on that note, I need to talk about the CG next, specifically, when it comes to blood. There is quite a bit of CG blood in this movie. Most of it comes from whenever a body is being shot at, and their blood comes out like if someone set off a bunch of fireworks. It's definitely the most bloody Rambo film I've seen so far, probably more so than the first and third movie. Now some of these shots of blood coming out of bodies look OK, and other times, it looks like shit. Like, this is some REALLY jarring-looking CG blood that you are more than likely going to notice how much of this blood was done digitally. Now there are some instances where the movie does use practical blood, especially towards the end, and that still looks really good. But some of the CG blood here just kinda falls flat on it's face. Now granted, it's not something that will entirely ruin the film for you, unless if you're a real stickler when it comes to how you want your blood done in action movies, but it is something that is definitely worth noting.

Camerawork here is pretty good. There is a little bit of shaky cam here and there, but it's still clear enough to where you can see most of everything that goes on in this movie. Lighting here is lit very well. Mostly because this was filmed outdoors, so it would make a lot of sense why the lighting here would be good. Sound-mix here is also mixed very well. The score here, in certain areas, mostly in the beginning and ending of the film, has music that is very similar to Jerry Goldsmith's work that he had done in the previous movies. And it's very good here. The rest of the score is, ultimately, nothing special. But the beginning and ending scores are still really good, so the music here is a plus just based solely on those two pieces alone.

So ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Rambo"? Mostly, yes. Especially if you were a fan of the previous 3 movies, then this one will definitely deliver on the action. However, I do have to warn you again about some of the disturbing imagery used here involving children that I mentioned earlier. That part alone I could see someone not being very comfortable with, and could possibly hate this movie because of that. However, if you're able to stomach that part, the rest of the movie lives up to being a really solid Rambo film. The action definitely turns itself up a notch, and Sylvester Stallone is still able to be as awesome as he was 20 years ago. Now with that being said, where would I rank this movie along with the other previous Rambo films? Honestly...I don't know. I really don't know where I would rank this particular Rambo film. I'm kinda leaning towards it being the weakest film of the entire series. Maybe it's because I have some sort of big fondness for the previous 3 Rambo films that I don't know if I would even rank this one higher than any of them. Plus also, while I appreciate the film going in a much more darker direction, I don't think that's really enough for me to say that I like it better than the other 3 movies. Now mind you, when I say it's the weakest film of the series, that does not mean that I dislike it, nor do I think it's bad. I just don't think I would put it above the other 3 movies. Now yes, there is one more Rambo film left that I have yet to watch, so perhaps maybe I shouldn't be doing this sort of ranking yet. I'll just have to wait and see when I eventually get to it in a couple of weeks. But still, despite my nit-pickyness, I can still totally recommend the 4th Rambo movie", overall. Again, as long as you can look past the stuff that I already just mentioned. But anyway...I'm gonna go and do something else. And seeing as how this movie wanted to go in a more darker direction, I kinda want to rewatch my copy of "Dredd" again. I just love that movie so much, so I'm gonna go and do that next right after I get done typing this review.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Dead Space: Downfall

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an animated film from 2008. That movie is "Dead Space: Downfall".

Now this movie, from what little I do know about it, is a tie-in to the Dead Space video game series that is published by EA Games. And from what little information I read, this movie is apparently a prequel to the first Dead Space game, and also takes place after a limited comic series that I've never read. So any details from that comic series are not gonna be addressed here in this review. I'm purely gonna review this movie on it's own standards. And a little bit of a spoiler here for what is to come, there is another animated Dead Space movie that I plan on covering later this month. So stay tuned for that if you're curious.

Now I should mention that I've only played the first Dead Space game on the Xbox 360. And it actually wound up kinda surprising me a bit by being rather fun, because I'm usually someone who's not normally into the survival horror genre. Not because of it's supposed scare factor, but more so that my past experiences with survival horror games haven't always been positive. But the first Dead Space game was actually pretty fun. And thanks to that game, I was more open to go back and play more survival horror games. Most notably, I have played games like Resident Evil's 4 and 5, along with Resident Evil: Revelations, and my experiences with those games have gotten more comfortable thanks to my experience playing Dead Space.

So with all this in mind, I'm hoping for this movie to be pretty good. I don't really know what to expect, given that it's a prequel and all, but I'm hoping for the best here. And the only way I'm gonna find out how good or bad this movie could possibly be, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Dead Space: Downfall".

16 minutes later

All right, guys, this movie hasn't really given me much to work with, but I can say that the CG in this movie, at least so far anyway, looks homely as shit. Seriously, guys, this CG looks like it came out of the early 90's rather than 2008. It looks rather bad, and I'm probably gonna have to get use to this kind of CG for the next hour or so.

11 minutes later

Well, we finally got our first look at the Necromorphs in it's physical form. And damn, there's a lot of them already, too! Hopefully, this will turn the movie around in a positive way, since it's been kinda dull up to this point.

12 minutes later

OK, that's sort of new. I've seen these Necromorphs do a lot of disgusting things, but I've never seen one cut off a person's jaw off like that! That was certainly new, guys. And pretty cool, too.

4 minutes later

You know, guys, it's funny. The acting in this movie has been fairly decent, so far. The one actor who's phoning in the worst performance in this movie, however, is Jim Cummings. Yes, THE Jim Cummings is turning in the worst performance in this entire movie! And I know that sounds rather blasphemous, given his stellar track record, but I'm gonna talk more about his god-awful performance here later when this movie is done.

8 minutes later

Well...that certainly was a rather gruesome way to get cut by one of those chainsaw beam blades. It's just kind of a pity that she had no personality or depth to her character, so I can't really say that I feel sorry for her.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Dead Space: Downfall". Let me go ahead and shut the film off...OK. So...where to begin? Well, I went into this movie, unsure of how it was going to turn out. And after watching it...I can say that it was...OK. I wanted to like it more, but it's unfortunately boggled down by certain issues that I'll get into later.

For now, though, I'm just gonna start with the writing. Now I've talked about this before many times in the past, but it bears repeating. When you're doing an adaptation of something into film, whether it's a video game, or a comic book, or whatever, you kinda have to take some liberties with what you're adapting. Otherwise, your movie has a good chance of being rather bland. I can remember watching something like "Bayonetta: Bloody Fate", where that movie stayed very close to it's source material, but also kinda suffered a bit because it didn't take a whole lot of risks, such as certain lines of dialogue that came from the game which were clumsily added into the film. You can read more about it in my review of that somewhere in my Season 2 file on my DA page. But shameless plugging aside, you kinda get the gist of where I'm getting at when it comes to that kind of subject. Now when it comes to this movie, the one thing I can definitely give it is that it actually feels like you're in the world of Dead Space. The atmosphere, the Necromorphs fucking with everyone's minds on the ship, the gore and violence, it is ALL there. So when it comes to replicating the world of Dead Space, this movie nails that down almost perfectly. And I have to give it major props for getting that much down.

Unfortunately, almost everything else that I'm about to discuss are mostly negatives. To start with, the writing here is kind of a mixed bag. Our story here is perfectly fine. Now again, I have no idea how much I'm missing here when it comes to the comics that this movie supposedly takes place after. However, as I've stated earlier, I have to review this movie by it's own merits. So basically, there's this Artifact that gets discovered on some deserted planet. Which ends up being taken aboard the Ishimura, which is basically this ship that is being commanded by Captain Mathias. He wants to take it so that his crew can study the Artifact, as they try to take it back to Earth for the Church. And then it leads into the Necromorphs slowly taking over the ship, as they being killing off the crew members by either dismembering them, or make them go insane which would cause them to kill themselves. And the only ones that can help are a team of soldiers lead by our main character Alissa Vincent. And speaking of which, let's talk about the characters in this movie. To make it simple for you, guys, nobody has any real personality or depth to their characters. I can remember a lot of character names, such as Alissa, who's mostly stoic throughout the film. Samuel Irons, who I THINK is suppose to be Native American, but I'm not totally sure. Shen, who has blue hair and I think is suppose to be Asian, but again, I have no idea for sure. Ramirez, who I don't remember anything about. Dr. Kyne, who I believe was in the first Dead Space game, it's been a while since I last played it. And Captain Mathias, who's basically just a meathead captain throughout a majority of the film before his mind slowly gets corrupted and goes insane. And that's it. Nobody else is even worth mentioning, because they're all personality free, and nothing about them stands out about their characters, aside from some of them saying 'fuck' a lot. Which got a little bit old, pretty quickly. Mind you, this is coming from someone who curses quite a bit, but this movie kinda turned it up a notch when it came to it's characters cursing.

Now, while I will say that the tension in this movie does kind of exist, what ends up killing it for me is the opening sequence. And in order for me to get to that, I have to talk about the ending. So if you have interest in watching this movie, you may want to either skip this entire paragraph, or stop reading all together, because I have to talk about spoilers here. So right towards the end of the film, Alissa is giving out a recorded SOS message to anyone that might be listening to her message. Once she gives that out, she opens the hatch which sucks most of the Necromorphs into space, along with the beacon that contains Alissa's message. And then she also gets sucked into space shortly afterwards, thus dying. Which then leads into the events of the first Dead Space game. Now, what exactly is the problem here? Well, that SOS message that we're shown by Alissa...is also shown right at the very BEGINNING of the movie. Which means that a lot of the tension in this movie gets shot down, because you already know what's going to happen! Now I probably would've been fine with this, if there was any reason to care about these characters. But like I already said, nobody has any real defining characters traits, and the character themselves are shallow as shit. The only ones that are worth mentioning are Dr. Kyne and one other person who I won't mention, because they both are in the first Dead Space game. Beyond that, everyone else remains personality free, and by the time that they get killed off by the Necromorphs, I honestly couldn't have been happier to see them die. Mostly because the Necromorphs are far more interesting than our shitty characters.

So on that note, the writing here, as I just stated, is kind of a mixed bag. It captures the look and feel of a Dead Space game, but the characters and the placement of the SOS message at the beginning of the film stops it from being great. Now with that said, let's get into the voice acting. And I am gonna say, again, that most of the acting here is fairly decent. Even though most of the characters were painfully shallow, the actors were still able to give out some kind of meaningful performance here. However, unfortunately, this leads me into talking about the worst actor in this entire movie. And that actor is Jim Cummings. On the off chance that you, somehow, don't know who he is, Jim Cummings has been a voice acting veteran for the better part of almost 40 years. Most of his voice acting credits come from Disney cartoons, and most people who grew up with his work consider him a voice acting god. Hell, you could give him almost any kind of script and he would still be able to turn it into solid gold. Except here, that is NOT the case. He voices Captain Mathias in this movie, and I can tell you from his performance here that Jim Cummings just did not care. At all! And I believe I know why his performance in this movie was so bad. You see, he only has 2 ranges when it comes to voicing Captain Mathias. He will either sound like he's whispering, which is suppose to be his normal voice. Or, he will try to sound over the top by sounding as angry as possible...and it doesn't work! Mostly because his character in this movie is just a meathead captain with no thought of his own. And when he tries to sound angry, I can hear that he was trying to ham it up towards the very end until his character dies, but it sounds so unnatural here that I honestly just wanted his character to die sooner, so that way I didn't have to hear Jim Cummings try so hard to sound he like gave a shit! But again, he didn't care. And as a result, he phoned in the worst showing in this entire movie. Which is something I never thought I'd say about him, but it's definitely the case when it comes to his performance in this film.

So anyway, let's put aside the acting, because I've said all I can about it, and let's get into the animation. Now, when it comes to the hand drawn animation, it looks OK. None of it is amazing by any stretch, but it's certainly not awful either. The character models are pretty good, which also includes the Necromorphs, as they look spot on with their designs from the game into this movie. The only bits of it that are kinda cheap are some of the mouth movements not exactly lining up with their given dialogue. But that's honestly more of a nitpick, and you would really have to notice it like I did if you're an animation enthusiast. But what's really noticeable about this movie is the CG. Oh boy, the CG...where the hell do I even begin? Well, to start with, I mentioned earlier that the CG in this movie looks like it came out of the late 90's rather than 2008. And I stand by that statement, because this kind of CG would've been prevalent back in the days of a PlayStation 1 cutscene. And what's funny about that is that this movie came out shortly after the first Dead Space game, which was originally both on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and you have CG that matches a late 90's PlayStation 1 cutscene. That is rather sad when you think about it. Not only that, but some of the CG looks like it may have been made in low resolution. Mostly when it comes to the interior designs, and especially when you get to see signs that the Necromorphs have overtaken the ship. For whatever reason, this kind of CG looks noticeably worse here! I don't know if that was because I watched this movie off YouTube and it may have had something to with the version I was watching, or if it just naturally looks ugly as shit. Which would make sense, given the nature of this movie's CG looking like a PlayStation 1 cutscene. So yeah, the animation here, at least on the 2D side of things, looks decent, but the CG in this movie looks painfully ugly.

Sound-mix here is mixed fine. There is very little to no music playing during certain scenes, in which our team of heroes are searching in dark areas where the Necromorphs might be lurking. This stuff is great. And again, it goes back to what I mentioned earlier in how this movie was able to capture the look and feel of Dead Space. And that is awesome to see. What little music is used here sounds haunting and it definitely does it's job here.

So ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, can I recommend "Dead Space: Downfall"? Um...hmm...it's kind of a difficult call here. If you can, somehow, overlook the glaring flaws that this movie has, especially when it comes to it's shallow characters and awful CG, then you might be able to find something here that's decent. In fact, I'll even go ahead and mention that the movie is also really short. It's only about 75 minutes long, so if you have that much time to spare, then by all means, you can go ahead and check it out. But could I recommend a physical purchase for DVD or Blu-ray? Honestly...unless if you're a die-hard fan of this particular franchise, then no. You can probably skip this, because only fans of that franchise would get a kick out of this movie. Horror fanatics, maybe also. But for everyone else, no. There's really not a whole lot here that's gonna keep you interested. I'm still gonna be checking out the second Dead Space movie later on this month, and I'm hoping that one is gonna be better than this movie. But I'm not totally sure if that's gonna be the case or not, considering that this movie leans being painfully average. For now, though, I'm just gonna go back and continue playing my copy of Resident Evil Zero. I just recently downloaded it on my Switch, so I'm gonna go and do that next after I get done putting this review together.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.