Reign: The Conqueror (1997) and The Rats: A Witcher Tale

Two TV shows with different problems.

Reign: The Conqueror

This anime series is the story of Alexander the Great, in the art style and clothing choices of the Aeon Flux cartoon (1991) and set in a strange pseudo-future where people still ride horses and use short swords and super long spears but also can occasionally turn into aircraft, field giant robots in battle, and more than once have outer body experiences that involve standing in space looking down at the planets and obsessing about geometry. 

One episode has Alexander journey through a city he hasn't built yet in a flash-forward, where he has to reach his own, digitally encrypted tomb while another features the most ridiculous execution device ever: a spinning blade the size of a building. Strange doesn't begin to describe it, but its otherwise an ok story with very little character investment.

The Rats: A Witcher Tale

Set after season 4 of the Netflix Witcher TV series, this live action movie has loads more problems than the above. Due to its nature you already know how it ends before it starts, and the main characters are basically a band of army deserters turned brigands that are stupid selfish asshats who think their personal trauma makes them unique snow flakes in a world of NPCs which doesn't really improve their likeability from their time in the main show. 

There are some nice action bits and funny bits and Dolph Lundgren's character is the main highlight of the whole thing but even all that is not enough to save this. 

Unrelated, but I'd be remiss not to talk about Witcher S4 while I'm at it where the main change is that protagonist Geralt has a new actor in Liam Hemsworth. For me, he actually does a pretty good job of character continuity from his tone of voice all the way to his fight moves. If anything, the only problems with S4 would be the same ones from previous seasons - the plot and plot holes. I still enjoyed it though, much more than I did The Rats. 

Genocyber and Takopi's Original Sin

Animes with unstable females.

Genocyber (1994)

In a future where scientists weaponize unstable little girls, they are hilariously surprised when the psybernetic (that's not a typo) weapon goes on a rampage and over the course of a handful of episodes quickly obliterates most of the planet. The old style anime art is well done and the stories are interesting enough but it would have been great if they gelled together a bit better instead of seemingly having time skip cold opens a few times. 

Takopi's Original Sin

A goofy alien that looks like a happy squid lands on Earth with the mission to make people happy and pairs up with an abused and suicidal teen. The animation of this one is really smooth with a violently depressing story (though I found some dark parts quite funny). I have a feeling that because the beatings depicted are more grounded to reality it actually hurts more than say the flurry of blows in Dragonball Z. Very different from my normal viewing, and very dark.  

Pearl and Maxxxine

More slasher horror with Mia Goth.

Pearl

A prequel to X, this slasher focuses on the titular Pearl in her youth where she's just a lonely and more than slightly deranged farm girl who has big dreams. Props to the film style in getting that old timey style and colors right, and to Mia Goth who plays Pearl carries the whole thing. It does leave the killing stuff and gore till the end though, and since its a prequel there's no real tension to be found here. 

Maxxxine

This sequel to X follows Maxine, again played by Mia Goth, as she's continued her stint in the adult film industry and is now trying to move to main stream stuff during a period where a serial killer is hunting women just like her. The gore and killing is slightly better paced now but the overall story is the weakest of the three. Not recommended.

Pathfinder: Climbing up the Back Door

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Night falls as the team moves along the ravine to make it beneath some cliff facing caves that Razmus marked on the map, the lower one of which is a wyvern nest that he has a personal grudge against (since they were sent after him before) so the current best climber Valeros goes up to fix some ropes and then tosses one of his flamethrower alchemist fire fuel cans like a grenade to light up a pair of the winged bastards before five foot stepping off the cliff behind him - falling slowly thanks to the feather fall ability of the cape of the eagle (from Vault No. 3).

The wyvern pair fly out in a rage but fail to hit any of the team waiting below and are subsequently arrowed by the Shoanti Squad and back stabbed by Merisiel. A larger wyvern still waiting inside the nest is speared down by Joe Gang and then the team rests up to recover HP and spells before Valeros does a big climb to the next and much higher cave which contains giant undead spiders piloted by little spiders? Since this party is ultra-tuned to face undead the enemies are quickly obliterated by holy magic letting the team proceed through some narrow tunnels through which Razmus has to squeeze, though Valeros gives him the cape of the eagle so that he can just transform into a bird if it gets too tough.

He doesn't end up needing it as the cavern opens up a fair bit and a band of nine Redcaps (evil dwarves) ambush them! Their small size hides their toughness of -10 damage resistance which means taking them down heavily relies on the magics of Ezren and Kyra, Razmus' and Kyra's celestial elephant's brute force, Merisiel's sneak attacks, and Shay's frost bow while Valeros tanks the five in front as the Shoanti Squad nearly perishes doing the same with the four at the back. A suicide bomber kobold with a necklace of fireballs then shows up and pushes the party's HP even further towards zero but is not enough to down anyone yet (thanks to people making reflex saves)! 

Pathfinder: The ones at Storval

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Upon approaching the massive and guarded steps leading up to the Storval Plateau, Valeros plays the prisoner gambit (in this case Razmus pretending to be a prisoner) with long planned forged letters ready to go. Alas, Kyra's diplomacy roll of a natural one means the six giant guards immediately start throwing and rolling boulders down the giant steps like Donkey Kong! 

Ezran and Kyra fireball nuke the attentive guards, while a hasted Razmus (who can run up the giant steps as normal) gets right up to their face quickly and smacks down the weakened ones easily. With them dead, the team continue up and rest up near the mountains before attempting a stealth raid on the looming watch tower up ahead, which stands pretty far from the main castle and is used as an early warning system. Merisiel's stealth roll of a natural one means the warning signal is lit even before the squad reaches there.

They can annihilate the giant guards-woman and her two runeslaves pretty quickly then hide in the watch tower itself as a giant roc comes to investigate. They hope to ambush the bird when it lands but no - it instead hovers above squaking loudly for some time.  Luckily, it flies off before any investigators from the freaking army camped outside the giant castle approach (they're still forming ranks) so Razmus leads the team through the mountains he previously used to escape from while Ezren drops a wall of force to slow any pursuers.

Eventually they reach a long drop to a ravine below where they use collectively use their siege or regular engineering knowledge to construct a ladder-stair down to the narrow shore edge, but thanks to DL rolling super high on the percentile die a patrol of three stone giants and their giant dire bears show up at an awkward time and have to be put down and tossed in the drink before the team makes their descent.

Pathfinder: The Shoanti Squad

[Part of the Party Time journal]

From Ravenmoor the party continue North, crossing a deep chasm on a flimsy rope bridge guarded by four trolls and some annoying stirges. The fire weak trolls aren't burned due to the condition of the crossing so are instead downed and tossed in the ravine where they'll regenerate after... however many months or years. :P 

The team then meet five Shoanti tribesmen who are questing to rescue some captives of their own, and Valeros readily agrees to help them. They assemble outside a troll berserker camp which is easily torched by Ezren while Kyra's celestial elephant crushes most of the defenders underfoot. Merisiel frees the caged captives here, none of whom are from towns the party has been in, but at least the people the Shoanti wanted to save are here - including a Shoanti princess. Peach is that you?

In thanks the Shoanti escort the squad back to their village, which so happens to be under attack by a chimera who is slain in two quick turns. Meeting with the chieftain later, the party learns that the Shoanti and giants used to be more friendly to each other, they even used to trade goods. Now the chieftain shares a vision of a possible entry to the giant castle involving a dark cave with webs, and sends the five strong Shoanti squad with them to assist.

While they leave their mounts at the Shoanti village as the chief suggests, their party number still increases when they finally regroup with their old buddy Razmus the hill giant whom they magically "called" (seriously its almost like a telephone spell) some time ago (just after the raid on Sandpoint) as his knowledge of his old ex-buddies might come in handy. 

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and X (2022)

Having an "X" in the title makes it cool.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

This sequel kaiju flick finds Kong being lonely while Godzilla is busy roaming the world murderizing the other titans as he feels like. Plot wise this is definitely more Kong focused and its funny that even though the status quo is that giant monsters are sort of common now  there are still many scenes and plot twists that stretch belief. You'll see. That said the CGI and action bits are pretty good and the lack of talking for at least 50% of the movie actually helps it out. Interestingly most death happens off screen, to make it kid friendlier? Overall a fun movie with no depth, despite how far hollow earth goes. :P

X (2022)

In this horror slasher a small crew decides to make a porno flick and pick the wrong place to stay and shoot footage because of an elderly couple who happen to be murderous old horn dogs. This low budget and super self aware flick has all the usual tropes including a variation on the hilarious "let's split up" one, just with more excuses to show more skin. Acting wise Mia Goth does good work in her double role, but its hard to feel afraid of bad guys who mainly get away by appearing harmless. Ultimately the movie doesn't excel in any part it does, which is a bit of a shame.