Alita: Battle Angel - A real hero and a real cyborg warrior

"I do not standby in the presence of evil!"

Based on the Japanese cyberpunk manga Gunnm, or better known as Battle Angel Alita, and also on the 1993 anime adaptation simply titled Battle Angel, this movie takes a very bold approach to remake it for the western audiences, while trying to retain much of the core of its origins. Produced and written by James Cameron as a longtime project of his, even before Avatar, Alita: Battle Angel follows the original story conceived by Yukito Kishiro very closely. Too closely, I might say. The directing part went to Robert Rodriguez of all people and I really have some irks to say about that. In preparation for this review, if I may call it so, I tried my best to find both the manga series and the animated movie just to make sure I have the basics laid out. Surely, a movie needs to stand on its own, but I needed to know if it indeed does and whether some of my suspicions are true. So buckle up, 'cause we're going on a complicated ride!

Predicting Anthem & Bioware's Future

Bioware has gradually given up on making role-playing games, not just the brilliant games they used to create. They are now a husk of what they once were and EA are using them like a sock puppet until the industry wears it out and nothing but dust remains. When they announced Mass Effect: Andromeda, I was skeptical, but hopeful. When they started to release gameplay footages and boasted about their engine and graphics over story and characters, I knew what Mass Effect: Andromeda was to be and I did warn them, I warned the internet wherever I could like a madman. Me, the guy who was so impressed with Mass Effect 2 and with the marketing for Mass Effect 3 that I decided to pre-order it, as I rarely do. Not only that, I pre-ordered Mass Effect 3's collector's edition for that damn N7 patch. I am a fan of both Bioware and Mass Effect in particular, yet I knew better than to buy Andromeda.

Bioware has been pulled from creating more content for their "promising" Mass Effect: Andromeda, you know, at least to justify paying full price for an obviously rushed travesty of a game. I don't need a confirmation to know that Anthem isn't Bioware's thing and that they've been given an ultimatum. You'd think that Andromeda was successful enough, right? But is it ever enough for the greedy board of shareholders who want more, more, more and even more? So EA pulled out the whip on Bioware.

Why the first season of Star Trek Discovery ended poorly

I've done a bad, bad thing. I responded to some random guy on Twitter describing Star Trek Discovery's last episode of the season as objectively awful and adding a sarcastic "Enjoy!"
Aside from the obvious shitposting, there was a hint of honesty in my dumb statement. Well, when a couple of actors took passive offense, leaving their own harmless sarcastic responses to me, that's all it took to attract a horde of bloodhound fans. You can't just simply mess around with a beloved intellectual property without pissing off the fanbase one way or another. I will admit, joke aside, that my tweet was mean, though not malicious or ill intended, and that I could've either minded my own business or further elaborate. For that I am sorry and I might flagellate myself for this crude mistake, maybe. Though I have decided to ignore most of the "nonconstructive" messages, some have argued that my "criticism" wasn't even constructive or creative, so why bother "sharing"? People have this wrong mindset that "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all," but it doesn't take much imagination to see it brought up by hypocrites and it's a funny thing that they only apply this quote whenever it suits them. Well, I'm sorry for not being able to self-censor my thoughts just because people will take offense with my opinions, stupid as they may be... or not. So even if that is my subjective opinion, I feel that I now have to explain why some episodes of Star Trek Discovery, especially most of the second half of the first season, are OBJECTIVELY awful. Consider this my constructive criticism.

Video Games Featuring Black Protagonists (Part 3)

I'm back with another batch of games in which you can take on the role of a black character with a story and a personality. I'm really sorry I couldn't include Sheva Alomar from Resident Evil 5 or Isaac Brigs from Splinter Cell: Blacklist, even if they are playable characters, have cool personalities and change the game completely in co-op, they can't be selected as the main character in single player, nor can you play as them in at least one mission. At the same time, no matter how I tried to twist the “fictional races” thing, I still couldn't bring myself to include Star Wars: Republic Commando. Delta Squad are all clones of Jango Fett, who's portrayed by a talented Maori actor, Temuera Morrison, the canonical face, and he is Polynesian, not black. Also sad to not include games like LEGO Marvel Super Heroes or its sequel because the stories mainly focus on the usual protagonists, which are all either white or... green. Another debate I had with myself was if strategy games like Civilization V or VI count when you play as the ruler of a country or empire, but is there really a plot and do you really play as that character or are you playing as their secretary? And lastly, still bothered I picked story protagonists only because I can't include any of the awesome Overwatch characters since they don't lead any plot. I did mention that in the first article, the rule about half-backed stories for an online-only game without an actual plot, but I do feel bad about it.

5 awesome new TV series worth giving a chance (February 2018)

I like to seal the day with a good TV show in the evening. It's my relaxing way of escaping from mundane to exciting and fascinating worlds, even for a while. I'll be honest, sometimes it doesn't really pan out. Many times I had to give up on watching the rest of the episode after just one episode, sometimes on very popular series. Other times I stuck around through and through with the most obscure of productions. Of course, not all stories are for everyone, so please keep an open mind, even if you are critical, and please try giving these shows at least a try. They are worth it.