Scream 7

God, this doesn't even feel like a Scream movie. They've lost sight of everything the series was about. 

There's hardly any humor or movie references. There's one scene where one of the characters starts to talk about horror movies, and another character literally cuts them off by saying, "We don't do that anymore." I'm sure that was a nod to the fourth wall, but I have to ask: If Scream is no longer a self-referential horror snarkfest, then what sets it apart from other horror movies?

Mild spoilers ahead. So Ghostface starts killing again, what a shock. But then Sydney gets a video call from Stu Macher, taunting her and promising to come after her daughter. There are questions as to whether Stu actually survived the original film, or if it's an AI deepfake. I won't spoil that here.

It's a serviceable mystery/horror with some very explicit gore, but it lacks humor and clever dialogue. The twists aren't particularly notable, and the end reveal is underwhelming. It's also annoying how often people survive insane injuries. 

Sydney keeps telling her daughter, "Always shoot them in the head" as if Ghostface is a zombie. But she's right. People keep getting up minutes after getting shot repeatedly in the chest, while wearing clothing too tight to hide a bulletproof vest.

And for all the "rules of horror" they used to talk about, people make ridiculous decisions in this one. They've basically turned the series into a straightforward horror story, complete with all the tropes they used to reference ironically.

I don't know what this is, but it isn't Scream.

Mortal Kombat II (2026 Film)

"Best Mortal Kombat movie" isn't a very high bar, but this was just fantastic. I liked the 1995 movie at the time, but in retrospect it was mostly the novelty of it all. There weren't a lot of video game-based movies back then, and MK was one of the better ones. The sequel, MK Annihilation, was so bad it's good, or so bad it's terrible, depending on your mood.

2021's reboot was a solid film, but it wasn't very memorable. It did a serviceable job of reintroducing the characters and had some decent action, but it didn't make much of an impact on me. The best thing I can say about it is that it's "good for a Mortal Kombat movie."

I don't have to make that sort of excuse for 2026's Mortal Kombat II. It's just a fantastic movie. It's just so pretty. The fights are beautiful, with backgrounds right out of the games, but presented in the hi-def glory only Hollywood can produce. 

The plot? Look, if you're not into video game movies, this isn't going to change your mind. It's pretty goofy. But it's the best possible telling of a Mortal Kombat plot. 

Feel free to skip the 2021 film and jump straight to this one. MKII does assume you've seen the former, but it's not hard to catch up. Introducing Johnny Cage helps, since the other characters have to explain the situation to him.

Thoughts on the characters:
Kung Lao - Excellent adaptation. The special effects on his hat are great.
Johnny Cage - Since Karl Urban is the biggest name in the cast, they use him as much as possible. I like how they address his age. Urban was a bit old to play Johnny Cage, so they framed him as an aging action hero who mostly makes money from conventions now. This was a good choice.
Kitana - She was my favorite character in the movie. Her relationship with Shao Khan reminded me of Gamora and Thanos. Kitana looks and acts spot-on for the character.
Shao Khan - Perfect. His helmet looks awesome. He's truly scary, even when doing the silly moves straight out of the video game.
Baraka - I really liked him, but he was probably one of the few special effects in the movie that didn't stick the landing. His CGI mouth wasn't bad, just sort of distracting.
Jade - She looked great, and her subplot really worked for me.
Scorpion and Bi-Han - Continuing their story from the first movie, it's more of the same. It kind of feels like they were written into the movie as an afterthought, an excuse to include two of MK's most popular characters. Still, it was nice to see them again.
Shang Tsung, Sonya, Jax, Raiden, and Liu Kang - Kind of bland, but not bad. They do the job.
Quan-Chi - I've always hated him in the games, but at least he moves the plot forward here.
Cole Young - Who? They spent the entire first movie telling his story, but he barely feels like more than an extra in this one. Considering the fan backlash against him in the first movie, this may have been the best decision.

Overall, it's a decent movie, with lots of fun action, and terrific VFX. People who haven't played the games might not find much to like, but it's a wonderful treat for fans of the games.

Life is Strange: Reunion - Final Thoughts

Spoilers ahead.

That was a fitting end to Max & Chloe's story. I'm glad this is going to be the last game with these characters, but I hope the series continues with new characters.

As I suspected, this is very much an apology game. This is totally a "fans complained, so let's give them what they want" game. And if you love these characters, it's a blast.

As a one-off game, it's not great. The story is very much "Double Exposure Part 2," as well as the end of the story started by the original Life is Strange. Playing this one by itself would be like watching "Return of the Jedi" as your first Star Wars movie.

It fixes the mistakes created by the last game. But it also undoes the tragic choice you have to make in the very first game. It weaves everything back together in a way that leads to a happy - if bittersweet - ending. I don't know if I really approve of this... the original game made an impact for a reason, you had to choose between two equally tragic endings. But Reunion merges the timelines into a universe that's the best of both worlds.

The characters deserve this happy ending, finally, but it does mean that the original game loses a little of its bite. Kind of like how Spock's sacrifice in Star Trek II feels less meaningful after Star Trek III.

My biggest fear was that I'd have to choose between Max and Chloe surviving. Well, my fears were groundless. The final choice really isn't that tough. I'd say it's on par with the final choice in Before the Storm.

I think this game's most interesting mechanic is just how much extra material they had to write based on your previous choices. At the beginning of Reunion, when it asks you what you picked in the original game, I told it I sacrificed Chloe. In my playthrough of Reunion, Chloe mentions that she's supposed to be dead approximately 6,000 times. I'll have to watch a YouTube walkthrough to see the alternate dialogue. I swear it had to be like programming two entire games' worth of dialogue.

There are a lot of possible outcomes in the end. Different characters can die in the fire, and different buildings can burn down. As usual, when I looked at my post-credits stats, I saw options I never noticed when playing the through the story. Like I said, I'm going to have to watch some YouTube playthroughs.

In my ending, two main characters died - Vinh and Owen. I didn't manage to stop any of the fires, and the buildings burned down. When presented with the final choice, I lied to Max. None of these are happy events.

And yet, this game left me with warm fuzzy feelings. That feels wrong, somehow, but at this point in my life, I'll take happiness where I can find it.

Ranking the Life is Strange Games:

1. Life is Strange

2. Life is Strange: Before the Storm

3. Life is Strange: True Colors

4. Life is Strange: Reunion

5. The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit

6. Life is Strange 2

7: Life is Strange: Double Exposure

Life is Strange: Reunion - First Impressions

So, I'm about six hours into the newest Life is Strange game. So far it's a vast improvement over Double Exposure. 

An awful lot of it feels like an apology to the fans. Which can be bad. I mean, The Rise of Skywalker spent so much time trying to apologize for The Last Jedi, that it felt like it was written by a  PR committee (FTR I still loved it, but a lot of people didn't).

And Reunion does make some very obvious attempts to placate fans. It also makes a lot of "comfort references," like familiar music and legacy jokes (such as Max forgetting to water a plant).

Chloe is back. Regardless of what choices you made in the first game and Double Exposure, Chloe reappears and gets about as much screen time as Max. The writing is practically genius in the way it manages to honor all your major choices from previous games.

Like the last few games, Reunion asks upfront what choices you made in the earlier games. I've  played through LiS multiple times, so I've picked both endings. I had trouble deciding which one to tell Reunion I picked. Finally I chose "Sacrifice Chloe" because I felt it would make it that much more dramatic when Chloe showed up in Reunion.

And I was right. In fact, there's so much "You're supposed to be dead" dialogue that I'm wondering just how different the story is if you tell Reunion that you sacrificed Arcadia Bay.

Max no longer switches timelines at will like in DE. She's back to rewinding time like in the first game. And Chloe still has her backtalk from Before the Storm, though I've only gotten to use it twice so far.

There's a lot of foreshadowing, and it feels like the ending is going to be a real tearjerker. I don't know what to expect, but I know what I'm going to do if certain "Final Choices" are given.

Sacrifice Chloe vs Sacrifice Caledon University - Definitely save Chloe. It was a tough choice picking Chloe or Arcadia Bay, as it was a beautiful, charming town full of interesting people. But Caledon? Honestly I'd sacrifice Caledon for a grilled cheese sandwich.

Sacrifice Chloe vs Sacrifice Safi - Chloe wins. Safi is an annoying prankster, and even if she has good intentions (which is hard to say at this point in the game), she hasn't won my heart like Chloe.

Sacrifice Chloe vs Sacrifice Moses - Chloe wins again. Moses is a great guy, and I enjoy talking to him, but he's no Chloe.

Sacrifice Chloe vs Sacrifice Max - This is a real possibility. There are a lot of hints that Chloe is doomed, and it could turn out that the only way to save her is to eliminate the person who keeps screwing up time - that being Max herself. If it comes down to that, it's going to be a tough choice. I like Max better, but she had a good run. Chloe's never even really had a chance at life. I'll cross that road when I get to it.

Sacrifice Belgian Waffle vs Sacrifice Bacon Omelette - Oh, I don't know if my heart could handle it.

I'll write more when I finish the game. I'm trying not to play too much in one day, as I'm old and gaming hurts my back. But I'm also trying to get through this game before I start seeing spoilers. I doubt I'll finish the game today, but I should have it done by the end of the week.

Predator: Badlands

Well, that was more fun than it had any right to be, and it's much better than it looks.

Going in, all I really knew about Predator: Badlands was that the internet hated how the young Yautja looks. Some didn't like his hairstyle, others complained that his face was CGI instead of practical. The complainers are idiots. Assuming all Yautja wear their hair the same way is borderline racist, and the CGI looks a lot better in context.

I give this movie lots of points for actually doing something different with the Predator franchise. Let's face it, the first Predator was just "Alien in a jungle," and its sequel was "Alien downtown." The further sequels played more with the formula, but they still felt like retellings of the same story. Even the best Predator movie, Prey, had a plot that wasn't too different from the original.

But now (potential spoilers ahead), we get to see a Predator movie from the monster's point of view. For the first time (I think), we get to see them talk to each other with actual dialogue (in subtitles), and understand more of their culture.

At its core, it's a coming-of-age story, about a tribal warrior having to kill his first dangerous prey. Stylistically, it feels very Star Wars (it even opens with what's basically a lightsaber duel). But the Yautja themselves feel very much inspired by Star Trek's Klingons.

While there are no xenomorphs in this movie, Weyland-Yutani plays a big role in the story. Alien/Predator fanboys argue incessantly about what is and isn't canon to each other's universes. As I understand it, the Alien films don't take place in the same universe as the AvP and Predator films. I'm not sure if the AvP films are canon in the mainline Predator films, nor do I really care. The point is, Badlands does acknowledge that the other universe exists.

Anyway, it's fun film, with lots of sci-fi gadgets and strange creatures. The ending does open up potential for a sequel, but I doubt they'll follow up on it. This feels like more of a one-off to me, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

New ranking order:

1. Aliens (1986)
2. Alien (1979)
3. Prey (2022)
4. Predator: Badlands (2025)
5. Alien: Romulus (2024)
6. Predators (2010)
7. Predator (1987)
8. Predator 2 (1990)
9. Alien vs. Predator (2004)
10. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
11. Alien Resurrection (1997)
12. Prometheus (2012)
13. Alien: Covenant (2017)
14. The Predator (2018) 
999. Alien 3 (1992) 

Tron: Ares

It's hard to rate the Tron movies, to be honest. The first one was one of my favorite films when I was a kid, but as an adult it's kind of cheesy and slow-paced. The second one was beautiful but exposition-heavy and sort of pointless. Despite all their flaws, there's a special place in my heart for the Tron universe.

Ares is also heavy on the exposition, but it doesn't feel as ponderous as the previous films. At its core, it's about two rival corporations, fighting over a piece of code that will change the world. The evil corporation, headed by the grandson of the original movie's antagonist, doesn't care who gets hurt as long as they make a profit. Meanwhile, the good company wants the code for completely ethical purposes, such as ending world hunger. It's sad that in a story about living computer programs, an ethical corporation is the hardest part to swallow.

The special effects are absolutely stunning. I saw it in 3D, and I highly recommend it. The visuals are easily the movie's biggest draw. Unfortunately, once you get past that, there's not a lot to say about it. I loved the nostalgic references to the original movie, and it had some really pretty action scenes. I also like that it spends plenty of time in both universes, with AI machines getting 3D printed into ours.

I love the little touches, like how the vehicles are printed with supports like a those from a filament printer. Or the nostalgic references, like the first movie's sound effects being used as someone's ringtone. There's plenty of fanservice for those who loved the original.

Still, not a lot happens. The majority of the movie follows a forgettable protagonist trying to get a MacGuffin from one side of town to the other. It's kind of like a high-tech remake of 2012's Premium Rush.

If you're a fan of the first two movies, this is a great entry in the series. But it's still just as flawed as the other two, with more eye candy than substance. 

The Long Walk

It's probably been thirty years since I read the Richard Bachman (wink wink) short story, "The Long Walk." If you asked me which Stephen King stories need be adapted to film, this would have been low on the list. I mean, it's not a very cinematic concept. The majority of the story is just watching people walk.

I don't remember the book enough to tell you how close they got it. But I do remember one thing: The book was very bleak, and made me feel physically tired just reading it. And in that respect, the movie captures the spirit of the book quite well.

Since the story was so simple, I kept expecting them to stretch it out with Grinch-levels of flashbacks and other superfluous content. But they didn't go there. There are a few short flashbacks, but the majority of the movie is centered on the dialogue between the walkers. In a strange way it reminded me of Stand By Me.

Visually it looks like an episode of The Walking Dead, with similar costumes and color filters. The gore is explicit and sickening. I was about to say it was unnecessarily gory, but the frankness of it does help you feel like you're walking in the characters' shoes, so to speak. You feel their horror.

Is it a good adaptation? Yes, it's damn near perfect. Will I ever watch it again? Absolutely not. This is a fantastic movie, but it's hard to call it entertainment.