Movies for fans of the series.
Mandalorian and Grogu
This movie continues the story from The Mandalorian, and has everyone's favorite bounty hunter "dad" continue to teach, protect and nurture his charge Grogu, while doing some kick ass bounty hunting stuff. While the story is just ok, on par with the series, the action is definitely amped up with more fighting sequences. The two title characters also take turns taking the lead which is pretty cool but makes for a long run time. Not that I'm complaining! If you liked the series, you'll definitely enjoy this.
Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc
This movie continuation of the animated series follows our protagonist Denji thinking with his wrong head again, spending at least the first half of the movie trying to get lucky with a girl (which tracks). While the art is always top notch, the animation really kicks in at the second half which holds all the destructive fighting. Slow start but it turned out to be ok. Worth a watch if you've enjoyed the series. If you haven't seen the series, try that first and see if its for you (you'll know in a the first episode).
JVT Workshop
A blog on MMOs, Gaming, Movies and Real Life!
Sunday, 21 June 2026
The Mandalorian and Grogu and Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc
Saturday, 20 June 2026
Wuthering Waves
This is another gacha game which features better action combat than most and climbing / gliding system like Tower of Fantasy, which is fantastic. It also has a decent story and a ton of upgradable systems which is both good and OMG grindy.
You see, you have the usual gacha luck-of-the-draw party who can all level up and you can also level their weapons (both need special material grinded to break level caps). And then each can equip "captured" enemies. FIVE of them. That can also be leveled. But no its not just, "I want a lizard thing instead of this slug thing" because they also have randomized stats and abilities. This lizard might breath fire. This other lizard just naps and heals you. Want to tell the difference?
Too bad you can't. You need to go kill the lizards until you capture one that does what you want. AND has the substat bonuses that interest you FOR THAT CHARACTER. Good thing you can only have three characters per squad... :P Also, I REALLY DESPISE they systems where everything levels up with you. Great you reached level 10? Well those level 1 monsters are now also level 10. It's like, what was the point of leveling up? But guess what, you can't AVOID leveling up, because its your exploration level that determines the monster level.
Yup! So even if you remained at level one but explored the hell out of the map, guess what? You're just leveling up the enemies. Pity, because there's some really nice story in there. If you feel like you don't mind that level of grind then I recommend this for you. Definitely not one for me though.
Friday, 19 June 2026
Spider-Noir, Harley Quinn and Kite Man
A trio of alternate superhero shows!
Spider-Noir
This currently single season story has Nicolas Cage star as a 1930's private detective who also moonlights as "The Spider", their version of Spiderman - and guess what? When you have a good story, good characters and good acting you get a good result! Without a doubt this is now our favorite version of Spiderman. On Prime you even have the option to watch in in black and white if you want. Highly recommended and hope they make a season two!
Harley Quinn (and Kite Man, Hell Yeah!)
This currently five season animated comedy features the titular Harley Quinn who starts off breaking up with Joker and then forming her own gang. A lot of the laughs come from the irreverent way it treats the whole cast, with many extras dying gruesome deaths, but it can quickly get abrasive if that's not your sort of thing. Definitely shines brighter in the earlier seasons than the later ones.
Kite Man, Hell Yeah is a currently one season spin off from Harley Quinn and follows the adventures of the guy whose power is he has a kite? It has the same tone too so if you like the main show you'd probably like it.
Thursday, 18 June 2026
Ouroborus King and Rogue Waters
Two different roguelikes.
Ouroborus King
The weak story about a King reclaiming his lands doesn't cover up the fact that this is simply chess with a variety of unique pieces. You start with only four, and on your journey can "recruit" more, "upgrade" the ones you have, or find relics that do some neat stuff like take back your previous move. Not recommended unless you really like chess.
Rogue Waters
This roguelike has a lot more effort put into it with the art and animation and tells the story of an undead pirate seeking revenge. Combat starts with three rounds of exchanging cannon fire where you either target enemy cannons so they don't wreck you, enemy soldiers so you don't have to fight them later, or "modules" that provide many buffs to their owners.
Afterwards it becomes tactical grid combat with a focus on pushing (and some cool abilities). While you will lose a lot at the start, especially to annoying cut scenes, it really gets addictive once you start upgrading your ship and crew. Thumbs up for this one!
Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Brightburn and Boy Kills World
Movies about a boy killing the world?
Brightburn
A husband and wife praying for a child have their wishes granted when one falls from the sky in an alien spacecraft. They raise the kid as best as they can but going with nature always wins over nurture, once the kid hits puberty he starts getting violent and powerful. So yeah, this horror movie basically answers "what happens if superman was bad and somewhat sadistic"? It's goes just about as you'd expect which is not great. Predictable movies are predictable.
Boy Kills World
This action comedy movie takes predictable and throws it out the window. With a mute protagonist who is always voiced over and wants to revenge on the woman who controls everything through violence, the action scenes are great but totally unbelievable given the amount of bullets that miss our hero. It's funny with some really wacky parts (drugs!) but also gory which makes it a hard one to know who their target audience is. Me? So yes, the main plot is good but getting from point A to B is very convoluted, ridiculous and sometimes hilarious while the violence, especially the martial arts violence is well done. Worth putting on while you're doing something else if only to pay attention when the fight scenes start up.
Tuesday, 16 June 2026
Hogwarts: Legacy and Calico
Games of Magic (and animal abduction :P)!
Hogwarts: Legacy
Set in the world of the popular Harry Potter series but taking place much earlier, you get to play as a student in the magical academy and quickly get involved in a plot that only you "the chosen one" can resolve. But also, you need to attend class, explore the (vast) lands around, while helping (or not helping) other students and residents. This also involves doing some Pokemon by capturing saving a variety of magical beasts and putting them in your own pens for your personal use. Also, expect to be beating the absolute shite out of your opponents in this one to the point of "I don't need the killing curse because its so much more satisfying to break all your bones, cut you into pieces and then explode you from inside out, MUAHAHAHAAHAH!".
So yes, while I enjoyed it there are a couple of negatives: while there is broom riding there's no Quidditch (which is fine I guess), and despite the huge map the activities are kind of repetitive. Go here and clear a cave, go there and clear a cave. Oh a puzzle. Oh its the same sort of puzzle but elsewhere. Lastly, unskippable lines in cut scenes. Sure, you can skip the entire cut scene but you can't read faster than the voice actors (who do a wonderful job btw) and press a button to go to the next sentence like in other games. Is that one a minor point? Well, there's loads of lengthy cut scenes so you tell me. Still recommended, especially if you like Harry Potter.
Calico
In this pastel color game you are in a magical land where all the animals are friendly so you can pick them up, let them sit on your head, and take them to the cat cafe you are trying to open which you can also interior decorate to your hearts content. Also, just to add to the WTF factor you can prepare food... by shrinking down to a tiny size and then running around the kitchen like an action game to grab ingredients and basketball them into the boiling cauldron? Yeah, it lost me there at that point. I guess I'm not magical enough for this game. :P
Monday, 15 June 2026
Evil Black Phone
Shows about the supernatural!
Evil (TV series)
In this four season show a psychologist, a priest in training, and a tech expert make up the Catholic Church's assessor program, which takes on cases to determine if people have demonic possession or are just crazy, because the two actually look very much alike. It is very well written and well acted (especially the little kids) and 90% of the show is just cool character growth, world building and plot advancing. The other 10% is made up of horror which shows up every now and again, and holding back on it actually makes it super effective. Big thumbs up for this one, I highly recommend it.
Black Phone (1 and 2)
When a young quiet boy is taken by a kidnapper, he ends up having to rely on voices from a disconnected black phone to help him out - voices of the kidnapper's previous victims. While yes, that's a pretty scary situation to be in, there's not so much horror to it if the ghosts are on the protagonists side. I do like that everything the kid does that seems for naught actually plays a part in the end, but its almost like the bad guy doesn't stand a chance here.
In the second film years have passed and now it focuses on the sister of the quiet boy, a sister who gets strange visions and ropes in people to go with her to a frozen camp to follow the clues (there's still a disconnected black phone there, don't worry), only to discover its where the kidnapper from the first movie started his killing spree. Yay for there being a bad ghost this time around which makes for some scarier moments but when said bad ghost starts to ice skate... um...
It's interesting that the second film succeeds both in being scarier but also in being a less interesting movie. All up, give number one a try and if you really liked it, continue with number two. Or just watch Evil which is much better, but a bigger time investment. :P
