Welcome back to Thrak Attack! What's your adventure? This week has been an interesting week of new releases that are actually old releases. A video game port from 2012, a movie from December 2018, an exclusive vinyl with songs from 2006, and a new tour from a classic rock band. With all of that, let's get started!
NEWS!
-The Raconteurs are releasing an exclusive 3 inch vinyl for 2019's Record Store Day featuring "Store Bought Bones"
-Revolver Records in downtown Phoenix is closing it's door and is offering 25% off. RIP the store and my wallet.
-The Who announces a new album and 2019 tour. 55 years and I'm still ready for more music.
-Joshua Tree National Park has been in a trashed state ever since the government shutdown. Hopefully we can get things figured out so we can preserve a beautiful place.
-"Create Your Own Adventure" books are suing Black Mirror on their Bandersnatch episode.
-Dragons are coming to Elder Scrolls Online, too bad it's not really an Elder Scrolls game.
-Tokyo Disney is giving out hotel keys in the shape key blades from the Kingdom Hearts series.
TRAILERS!
Spider-Man: Far From Home will be the first film in the MCU after the biggest movie of the year "Avengers: Endgame". The movie looks solid and has a great cast with Jake Gyllenhaal joining the roster of characters Mysterio. If this was a singular Spider-Man film, this trailer is amazing. Even if it was just a sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming it would be a great trailer. But it's not. Spider-Man played a huge role in Avengers: Infinity War and met an untimely death in that film after the decimation. This trailer basically makes Spider-Man's (and Tony Stark's) fate in Avengers: Endgame totally clear and it really hurts the trailer and the fantastic storytelling of the MCU. So it's a great trailer but makes us ask all of the wrong questions about the film and gives us too much information on another film.
REVIEWS!!!!
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is the 10000th Wii U port to the Switch and I'm kind of over it. This is the first big release for the Switch in 2019 is a port from 2012. It's kind of sad right? I get that a lot of people missed out on a lot of great games from the Wii U era but it's because the Wii U was a bad system. Nintendo wants people to play those games and people are playing the Switch so why no port them? But, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is clearly a Wii U game (it's in the title).
So the game is a great 2D platformer with a lot of fun and challenging levels and some fun characters. You can play single player or with friends and it keeps the game fun as any platformer could be. There are some more challenging characters in the game such as Mario and Luigi, some middle of the road characters like Toad, Toadette (with her weird Peachette power-up), and the painfully easy Rabbit character. Which comes to my second issue with this game, it's just too easy. Peachette's extra jump, Nabbit's immunity to enemies, and if you still can't beat a level Luigi will play through it for you. There's no true challenge to this game which makes it boring to play.
I know I'm complaining about a Mario game from 2012 which is geared towards children; but Super Mario Odyssey was a Mario game from 2017 geared towards children and I had a much more enjoyable time playing that. To be fair, I am awful at 2D platformers and I kind of hate them at times so I never review them very high but this will not be making it on my ultimate shelf even if I was playing it on my Wii U in 2012.
This film looks great. The world it explores looks like a comic book but also feels epic and intense; The costumes, especially the classic Aquaman suit looks fantastic; and the camerawork is perfect. I have always loved the ocean, I grew up with the beaches of New Jersey and have always loves hearing about the legends of Atlantis and this film brings into a glorious and colorful light, The costumes feel like comic book costumes but also aren't campy like most are. Black Manta, Aquaman's, and Mira's are especially wonderful. And the chase scene in Sicily has some of the best camerawork I've seen in a super hero film.
This film is so focused on looking good that it forgets about key plot points from the other films like the events of the Justice League, character elements like how Arthur is a drunk (we only get 1 reference and 1 scene of him actually drinking), and the musical style as a theme for Aquaman is completely gone (there was one minor part in the score featuring electric guitars). I know my complaints of this film is based on other films Aquaman has been featured in but if you're going to establish these elements in one film you have to follow through on the next.
The best part of this film was not the whole Atlantis storyline but of what was happening in our land. Black Manta was the best part of that film by far. His story arc with his father and family was great. I am really excited to see where his story goes in the next film. And I can't wait. This will not be on the ultimate shelf; it was a fun adventure but I don't see myself watching it again.
Well that's it for Thrak Attack this week! Next week will be more news, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, and a road trip to Prescott. Hope you guys enjoy and keep reading and going on adventures.
All the Best, Ross
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