Rated PG Newsletter - Issue 07

With no major releases on the horizon and no film festivals to produce coverage for, this past week was a bit dull. I wanted to post another issue of this newsletter because I’ve grown to enjoy recapping my weeks, but I do think it might be time to slip into bi-weekly updates until something bigger happens. The majority of my week was playing Dragon Ruins 2: Aftermath, with the rest of the time spent going to the gym, searching for jobs, and existing. Not exactly blog worthy.

Still, I have enough I want to talk about over this week that I pushed myself to write things out. I apologize for it being a little late, but then I mostly do these for myself anyway. If I stuck to only appealing to a mass audience, then I’d never write anything ever again. The writing world is simply too brutal nowadays, and I’m not sure where my place is in it.

Games This Week

You would think my week would be filled with me playing Splatoon Raiders, but surprisingly, that didn’t happen. Nintendo announced some event for Tetris 99 where you could unlock past event themes you may have missed, so I spent a ridiculous amount of time grinding out matches to earn tickets. I completed my collection, thankfully, but it meant putting Splatoon on the back burner for a bit. Splatoon also played second fiddle to me running through Dragon Ruins 2: Aftermath, which was pretty good. I’ll have a video review for it soon, though it will likely be my last one for quite some time.

I also tinkered around with Devil May Cry 5 while ripping some films I bought. The Vergil DLC is fantastic if only because it gives you a cheat code for the campaign. Vergil is so God damned strong that he trivializes any difficulty below Son of Sparda. I blew through half the campaign in a few hours and will likely finish his campaign off before replaying the main game. I’m not sure if the level design really holds up, but it is a visual treat on PC in 4K.

Splatoon Raiders, on the other hand, took me until the end of the week to get back to. I got to check out its multiplayer with some of my colleagues from Nintendo Wire, and it does seem to suit the game better. The single-player mode is fine on its own, but it’s a bit too single-minded for me. I hesitate to say Nintendo is resting on its laurels here, because the mechanic of swapping tanks to change up how you approach battles is neat. It still seems more fit for a competitive environment rather than a solo endeavor, however.

Films This Week

You likely already know that I saw Spider-Man: Brand New Day since I did a full review for this blog. You can find my thoughts over there, of which I overall enjoyed the movie. It has issues, but not enough to ruin anything for me. I guess you can sort of apply that to Masters of the Universe, which I checked out to start the week off. It’s a much better adaptation than He-Man deserves, though it’s way too long for what it is.

I’m not sure why editors and producers feel the need to make action films stretch out beyond two hours, but creating an epic length He-Man film does not do the story any justice. It flops between themes and ideas with no real attention given to character motivations or even action set-pieces. The action design is pretty solid for what it is, and I do like that it has a mostly original score. Jared Leto isn’t even that bad as Skeletor, though it’s weirdly coincidental that an exposé about him being a child sex predator came out just a day after I watched Masters of the Universe. He certainly is not the selling point for the film and I would never tell anyone to overlook his very clear skeeviness just to watch a stupid 80s throwback.

I followed up Masters of the Universe by finally checking out Legally Blonde. I know I’m extraordinarily late to the party there, but it’s a mostly enjoyable comedy still. It’s very clearly dated, though not in ways that hold it back. I just cringe remembering how awful early 00s culture was. The major themes of the movie hold up well, though, and have somehow gotten stronger over the years thanks to a return of fascism. Gotta love that…

Rounding out my movie watching this week was The Devil Wears Prada 2, which is pretty underwhelming. I won’t knock the acting, costumes, or production values, but this was a wholly unnecessary sequel that does nothing to build on the innovative original. That it lacks any true antagonist, not to mention sends of a message of “society needs more billionaires backing magazines” brings it way down. I get there wasn’t much else that could be done with this particular world, but paying lip service to writers being laid off while being bankrolled by the very people laying writers off is too many layers of self-indulgence for me.

Upcoming Week(s?)

I really don’t have any plans for this next week. It’s merely going to be the same thing I’ve been doing for years now, which is leading me to maybe pushing the next issue out to bi-weekly. One of the reasons I wanted to do these newsletters was to expand on my thoughts for movies I watch as Letterboxd isn’t really an outlet to post in-depth criticism. I’ve done it before, and it matters to no one. I’m not one to post idiotic quips or jokes as reviews, either, but I wanted to move away from dumping my brain onto an app that lost its relevancy years ago.

If anything, I’ll be finishing off Splatoon Raiders, uploading my review for Dragon Ruins 2: Aftermath, and then finishing Devil May Cry 5. Film-wise, the next major release I’m looking forward to is the release of Coyote Vs. Acme. I don’t make enough money to go to the theater every week, so I have to pick and choose when I do. My local theater also doesn’t play anything but mainstream films, so I tend to have little desire to go back time and time again.