EldLynch-Tristan

Movies and TV:
-Neon Genesis Evangelion by Hideaki Anno
-Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo Del Toro
-Devilman Crybaby by Masaaki Yuasa
-Kill la Kill by Hiroyuki Imaishi and Kazuki Nakashima
-Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson
-Donnie Darko by Richard Kelly
-Eraserhead and The Elephant Man by David Lynch
-The Secret of Nimh by Don Bluth
-Sorcerer by William Friedkin
-Land of the Lustrous by Takahiko Kyōgoku

Music: 
-The album “Gunship” by Gunship
-The score for Evangelion 3.0 by Shiro Sagisu
-The score for Gattaca by Michael Nyman
-The score for Man of Steel by Hans Zimmer
-The score for Suspiria (2018) by Thom Yorke
-The score for Kill la Kill by Hiroyuki Sawano
-The soundtrack for Celeste by Lena Raine


Games: 
-Celeste by Matt Makes Games
-Sekiro and Bloodborne by From Software

Alright, first up... Status on XenoGirl...
Been sporadically working on the second prequel chapter about Natasha and her friends cosplaying at a Horror-con.
Also have given whatiwrote an outline for an important XenoGirl Chapter that I've decided to let him take a shot at writing. I can't say anything more about it, but it's coming along nicely.

Second... An update on my plan to start making Youtube videos examining the artistry of horror films.
I've got two planned concepts for videos. One of which is mostly written, and I just need to start recording b-roll from the movies that will be discussed, as well as record my voice and then promptly edit the whole thing together.

Third... I'm hoping to have the first video finished and posted within a few weeks before From Software's new game, "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice", is released. Because I've been lusting for a new game from them for years, having beaten Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 about half a dozen times each.
I'll definitely be playing the hell out of Sekiro, and might even try doing a series of humorous Let's Play videos.

#24. Deep Blue Sea 2:
The original Deep Blue Sea is by no means a great movie, but it’s a fairly decent shark attack popcorn flick. But I’ll never understand why a sequel was even made in and unceremoniously dumped out on streaming and home video release. Probably for unsuspecting fans of the original, looking for a good laugh. Don’t bother. This was the worst thing I sat through this year, and one of the dullest horror films I’ve seen, period.
The sharks may be genetically engineered to be super-smart, but none of the writers are.
1/10
(They should’ve made this an animated film from the Sharks’ POV and make them like the rats who were experimented on in Secret of Nimh. That’s the kind of campy fun this could’ve used.)


#23. Pacific Rim: Uprising
I love the first Pacific Rim. It is my personal, silly popcorn flick of choice when I want to relax. Similar to how some people cherish Independence Day, I cherish Pacific Rim.
I suppose that makes this sequel the equivalent of Independence Day: Resurgence?
Because I freaking hated this one. Just about everything I loved about the original has either been jettisoned or in unrecognizable in this half-assed sequel.
3/10


#22. Children of the Corn: Runaway
(Sung to the tune of Bon Jovi’s Runaway)
Ooooh, this sequel’s a runawaaaay...
-
Weinstein needed cash fast
All those films he could release
-
Ooooh this franchise should runawaaay...
-
A different hack director every time
Guaranteed to bore your eyes
-
See these production values
Competent for a corny flick
-
So they made this on the cheap
‘Cause they gotta keep the rights somehow
-
There’s no fanbase left to buy your tenth film
So just stop making them...
(4/10)

#21. Aquaman (4/10)
I hate being hard on DC, I really do...
But in a year where we got Black Panther, Infinity War, and Into the Spiderverse... THIS is what their gonna turn in?
A lackluster, subpar ocean “epic” with shotty effects, a clumsy story, a god-awful romantic subplot, and a great cast of actors phoning it in and making Dolph Lundgren look like he’s the best actor on screen.
I’m sorry Warner Bros, but it’s gonna take more effort than this.
How did you take this many steps back and basically remake the shitty Green Lantern film underwater?
D.C. has given us some of the best superhero films of all time in the past.
From the classic Christopher Reeves Superman, to the incredible Dark Knight.
They are capable of doing more than this, and we should in turn, expect more from them than this.
(4/10)

#20. Hellraiser: Judgement
Much like Children of the Corn: Runaway, Judgement is the 10th film of its franchise. Made on the cheap, where it sat on a shelf at Dimension until Harvey Weinstein’s scandal necessitated that they dump all shelved titles directly to home video to recoup as much money as they could.
For what it is though, Judgement is a perfectly watchable, and at times clever, new take on the Hellraiser mythos. With some ingenious, Neil Gaiman-esque ideas and flourishes which make it the best installment in decades. However, with its limited budget, and hit-or-miss direction, it’s still not something particularly worth seeking out unless you’re a fan of the series.
(5/10)

#19. The Predator
Was really looking forward to this one, being a fan of both the creative minds behind this sequel. (Shane Black and Fred Dekker)
The result is a strange, uncalibrated film that can’t decide if it wants to be about a group of mentally troubled war veterans bonding, or if it wants to be a sequel to Monster Squad with the Predator running around.
I’ll admit there is fun to be had, and I was pretty entertained for the first two thirds despite some issues. But the whole movie is plagued by a third act that was entirely reshot, and an end credits stinger that left me praying they wouldn’t make a sequel.
(6/10)

#18. Venom
Venom is my favorite Marvel character, and I was dying to see him get his own film.
However, he is sadly handicapped by a PG-13 rating instead of the R that Venom SHOULD HAVE. Not to mention a very clunky and by-the-numbers script. (Same writer as Aquaman, go figure.)
What saves this film is Tom Hardy.
Both as Eddie Brock and the titular symbiote, he can be very fun to watch.
And the buddy-cop like banter between the two of them once the second act begins helps get me past the unpolished visual effects and hasty climax without paying them too much attention.
But if they can’t make it R rated, I hope that next time they at least have more fun.
Maybe bring in a director with more style to give it some personality.
(6/10)

#17. Deadpool 2
A vast improvement over the first one in many ways. Interesting villains, a more filled out cast of supporting characters, and bigger setpieces.
And while I have a personal softspot for self-aware meta humor... (particularly when they’re commenting on Hollywood’s modern blockbuster culture) the dramatic beats this film goes for, both at the beginning and end felt very jarring and out of place to me. Underlining how tricky it is to transition back and forth between smarmy, satirical dirty humor and emotional gut-punches.
(7/10)

#16. Antman and the Wasp
Another example of a superhero sequel following in the wake of a first installment that I was lukewarm on.
Just as I felt with the first one, the coolest things in Antman’s films are Michael Douglas and seeing how convincingly they’ve de-aged him. (An effect they’ve attempted in many films in the past decade, but finally looks perfected here.)
As for the rest of the film... it’s alright.
There’s a lot more use of shrinking tech, which leads to some pretty creative setpieces.
But much of the humor doesn’t jive with my personal sense of humor, and the villain’s plot seems like something that could’ve been very easily solved by simply talking to our heroes and explaining her predicament to them.
(7/10)

#15. Solo: A Star Wars Story
As unnecessary and pointless as Rogue One was, in my opinion. Which sums up the film for me in many ways.
Because it shares many of its strengths and weaknesses with that film.
A bland lead surrounding by interesting supporting characters that I like spending time with more.
Tidal waves of references to other Star Wars films that are shoehorned in to get a reaction, but only end up making the universe feel smaller.
Some great setpieces that you have to wade through the rest of the film to get to.
But in the end, Rogue One had a purpose and felt compelled to tell its story in as satisfying a manner as it could.
Whereas Solo sometimes feel like it is trying, and at other times feels like no one making it cares that they are telling Han’s origin story.
(7/10)

#14. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
I was conflicted the second credits rolled.
Half of me was disappointed, and felt that we had been set up for a better film by the last installment. Instead we got what feels like a remake of The Lost World. (the second one) Where we have a film about people capturing dinosaurs and transporting them to the mainland.
While the other half of me is reminded of the times when I was a young child and dinosaurs were the coolest fucking things ever.
This new director brings an incredible visual look to this film, particularly when it’s rainy at night. And while the plot is utter nonsense, I feel this film works as a fun modern B-movie. Zipping from crazy illogical setpiece to crazy illogical setpiece at such a fast pace you can’t help but enjoy the ride.
(7/10)

#13. Bumblebee
This is easily the best live-action Transformers film with Bay no longer at the helm.
But that isn’t exactly a high bar to clear.
I was never particularly blown away by anything in this film, but I was never enraged or frustrated at any point.
It plays like a fairly decent, live-action Iron Giant adaptation and I found it comfortably small scale and quiet.
But at the beginning of the film, there’s a 5 minute prologue on Cybertron...
Anyone who’s ever been a fan of the original 80’s cartoon needs to see this film, if only for that prologue.
It is that cartoon brought vibrantly to life like you wouldn’t believe. Would kill for a movie that could capture what I felt in that prologue and apply it to the full runtime.
(7/10)

#12. Ready Player One
Knowing that Spielberg was behind this, I took it upon myself to read the novel this film was adapting within a week and a half.
(Faster than I’ve ever burned through any book that size)
I thoroughly enjoyed Ernest Cline’s book and felt that if Spielberg could do it justice like he did Jaws and Jurassic Park, it could easily become one of my all-time favorite films.
In hindsight, there really was no way this book could’ve been done justice within two or even three or four hours.
But for what it is, Spielberg did a damn fine job of streamlining the novel and making it an entertaining blockbuster.
With the opening race and middle sequence (that I won’t spoil) being some of the most fun and inventive uses of pop culture references and action.
(8/10)

#11. Halloween (2018)
It’s been almost a decade since we last saw Michael Myer on screen.
Almost two decades since we last saw Jamie Lee Curtis in her iconic role as Laurie Strode.
But truthfully, it feels like it has been even longer since we last got a nice, simple, old fashioned slasher flick.
Yet, this film offers more than just repeating the same, familiar slasher tropes.
It heavily develops the character of Laurie, and makes Michael scary again by avoiding all the silly explanations previous installments tried to put forward in an effort to explain who he was and why he goes after Laurie specifically.
This film simply tells us... he is The Boogeyman. Purely and simply evil.
And that’s all we ever need to understand about him.
(8/10)

#10. Hereditary
I really don’t want to say too much about this one, even when reviewing it...
The less you know going in, the more blown away and mindfucked you’ll be, coming out.
Incredible cast, haunting soundtrack consisting of a lot of droning and buzzing, and a finale that leaves me thinking and re-evaluating the whole story. Something all great art should do. Make you think.
There’s a particular scene that recreates the same unexpected shock that Psycho did back in 1960 when the lead heroine got stabbed to death in the shower halfway through the film.
(8/10)

#9. Avengers: Infinity War
The climactic, semi-finale that Marvel’s been building to for a decade.
I was as excited as most people were going in, but I was also anticipating this film to be a hugely overcrowded mess.
A mass car pileup of a film.
But in a brave move, the Russo brothers decided to make the main character our villain, Thanos. A character brought vividly to life by Josh Brolin who serves as the anchor for this incredibly stuffed cast.
Without him as our focal point/character/threat, I don’t know if this movie would have been half as good as it is.
(8/10)

#8. Incredibles 2
Fourteen years it took for us to finally get this sequel. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t dying to get a continuation. However, I am glad they did.
In many ways, this feels like the same film as the first one, but with some pieces rearranged.
That’s a dangerous choice in many cases. But this one manages to find its footing by swapping the character arcs for Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, as well as getting us more acquainted with some of the supporting characters from its first outing.
Thus allowing us to see new dimensions to the characters we thought we knew and appreciate them more.
Something that I felt 2004’s Spiderman 2 did similarly. Telling the same kind of story as the first one, with a very similar story structure...
but arguably doing it better at times.
(8/10)

#7. Black Panther
No, this isn’t the first superhero film with a black character as the main protagonist.
But it is the first one where it comments on the racial politics of today.
This film manages to be many things.
Superhero film, Bond film, political thriller, and a story about the challenges of being a ruler.
Shockingly, it manages to pull off all those genres effortlessly, with perhaps the most nuanced and interesting villain Marvel has ever given us.
(8/10)

#6. Mission Impossible: Fallout
Following in the steps of Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation, this series continues to be the one action franchise that gets better with each entry. While the plot is a little tangled up and tricky to follow early on, Fallout quickly changes its course and becomes a relentless series of chases, stunts, and incredible action.
Not since I saw Mad Max Fury Road have I seen such an exciting and visceral action film that underlines the very chaos of what its characters are experiencing in such a way that the audience feels like they are in the thick of it with them. I genuinely gripped the armrests so hard I clawed holes in them at the theater.
(9/10)

#5. Isle of Dogs
First Travis Knight with Kubo, and now Wes Anderson with Isle of Dogs shows us that there is a charm and a life to stop-motion animated films that can’t be touched by the common CG animated pictures.
It way be one of the most challenging and time-consuming methods of animation.
But the effort is always worth it when it comes through on screen.
This is a stellar heart-warming and funny story about the relationship between man and his best friend.
(9/10)

#4. Annihilation
I understand that this film is based upon the first in a series of books.
I’ve not read them, but for me this was like watching H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Color Out Of Space”. Not since I first saw Alien or John Carpenter’s The Thing have I seen a filmmaker so brilliantly capture the fear of the unknown that permeates Lovecraft’s classic tales.
Strongly recommend this one to any fan of cosmic horror, or smart sci-fi.

#3. Suspiria (2018)
The singular film I was most excited for this year. A remake of the Italian horror classic of the same name, Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria acts as both a more drama-focused telling of that story, and a loving tribute to the emotions Luca experienced when he first saw the original.
Shot on scratchy old film, and using a cinematography style inspired by German films of the 70’s, this entire film feels like a fascinating time-capsule.
It uses its political backdrop as mirror for what the characters are fighting for within the dance academy in a similar fashion the Guillermo Del Toro would in his fantasy films.
I was more shocked and shaken by this film than any other this year and spent weeks learning about the politics and art of the time to try and get a tighter grasp on what Luca was trying to say. But maybe, much like the original, that’s not the point of this film.
Maybe it’s merely about probing your subconscious for those primal, instinctual impulses of fear and wonder, and allowing you to ruminate on them.
(9/10)

#2. A Quiet Place
With very little dialogue, A Quiet Place cleverly and visual tells you about its world in just a few scenes, and then proceeds to spend the rest of its runtime performing an exercise in suspense. Cranking up that dial of fear slowly as each second ticks by.
It may be only PG-13, but this film is as tense as they come.
(9/10)

#1. Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
When Sony announced that it was developing an animated Spiderman film, I was as cynical as most were. Scoffing that it was only being pumped out so that they could keep the rights to the character.
...and then I saw the trailers.
People often think I hate CG animated films, because I criticize how similar they tend to look, and how devoid of style the sometimes feel. They ask me, “What would CG animation have to do to please you?”
This.
This is what I’ve been wishing CG animators would do for a long time.
It took 140 animators, and almost a year and a half for them to find the visual style for this film. They found it by avoiding the templates that all CG animators rely on, and thinking outside the box.
This is one of the most vivid and stylistically rich films in years. (Not just counting animated films)
It’s use of color, and the variance in animation style they can play with due to each unique version of Spiderman in this cast of characters...
I’m more in love with this team of Spidermen after one film than I am with any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe character after 20 or so films.
More than just having a gorgeous animation style, this film also has a very touching coming-of-age story at its center, as well as themes that better tap into what Spiderman and heroes represent as characters than any other film has to date.
(10/10)