Novastream Issue 18

There are very few interviews where from the outset you know that you’re going to have a great chat every single time, but with Chris Stanley and Laura Gilbert (better known as Cosplay Chris and Infamous Harley Quinn), it’s guaranteed. I had the opportunity to speak to them both at OzComicCon this year about all things cosplay, relationships and living in the public eye.

Both Laura and Chris have made their names as individual cosplay superstars in the Australian scene, but together they’ve become a formidable force when it comes to all things creation and community.

On making time for cosplay

filming – but it’s also made it more frustrating on those days where you’re on you’re own and don’t have the helping hand.

One of the most impressive aspects of Chris and Laura’s cosplay prowess is the hours upon hours of preparation that goes into a single costume, and managing that around living your regular life (behind the mask, as it were). Though Chris has now become a full time cosplayer and YouTuber, Laura still has to make time for university and regular work, so prioritising really does come into play.

“There’ll be times when Laura’s at home or I’m at home and I’ve gotta set up a shot, but I haven’t hit record on a one-shot take. It’s good having each other there for those times.”

“You definitely have to make the time,” she said. “It’s a passion as well, so you want to make time for the things you enjoy. Cosplay for me is not a chore – it’s something I look forward to as an outlet from uni and work.”

For Chris, the opportunity to work together is one of the biggest motivating factors, citing the fact that they created a couples cosplay for OzComicCon Day Two. “We’ve been working till the eleventh hour getting it ready but it’s all worth it in the end. The trick is, don’t make it a chore. And it’s never been like a chore.”

ON PREPARING FOR OzComicCon 2017 This past OzComicCon convention was a big one for the pair for one big reason: the debut of their first ever couples cosplay. Chris had already debuted his first version of Pirate Batman, but this year Laura decided to take the plunge and make an accompanying Pirate Catwoman, despite having never cosplayed anything other than a variation of Harley Quinn.

By documenting the whole process on YouTube, fans were given a sneak peek into the trials and tribulations of creating a cosplay from scratch. New to the world of urethane, stitching and weathering, Laura had a very steep learning curve.

Both blogging the process, their relationship has “I’m only one year in to cosplay and I started off with made it easier to manage both cosplay creation and having bought my cosplay from China – now I’m

yfriend-girlfriend bo e th to s lk ta o si ca ne Pa h Step taking names. cosplay duo kicking ass and

learning how to make stuff! I’ve never put the whole costume on at once. It’s been that pressed for time. Every bit has been worked on separately, but I’ve never tried it all on at once. And the makeup test? Couldn’t tell you. Contact lenses? Couldn’t tell you.”

But Chris is the first to reassure her that she’s a good student – a quick learner who makes things her own. That’s one of the things that Laura loved most about creating the cosplay in the first place.

“I’ve taken some things from my childhood.

I used to play a video game when I was three called Captain Claw and it was about a pirate cat. There was this amulet that my dad bought me as a necklace a year later, so I would wear it for good luck to play this video game. Now I’ve taken that and put it in with the Pirate Catwoman, so it’s just kind of nostalgic as well as being creative,” she said.

And it wasn’t just a creative learning curve.

There was a pretty heavy mental aspect to it as well, having become so well known for a single cosplay and wondering how people would react. “It’s really scary, because that’s what I’m known for – it’s my whole title”.

“People just expect Harley Quinn and I think that I was initially very nervous because I didn’t think fans would be as open minded as they have been. I’m really grateful that they’re wanting me to do something different and see me grow into other characters”.

When talking about the day’s preparation, both Chris and Laura laughed at the disparity between each other’s prep time.

Laura’s Harley Quinn tattoos can take up to two hours to apply and dry completely, and the long blonde wig she was sporting can take ages to sit right. Meanwhile, Chris could use his natural hair and simply apply some black makeup to give himself panda eyes – job done.

“Maybe I should wear the blonde wig,” he joked. “I could be Fabio!”

ON THEIR RELATIONSHIP As with most relationships in the public eye, theirs has had their naysayers. But for the most part, Chris and Laura have been nothing but blown away by the support of their fans and comingling of their communities.

Despite vocally admitting to being a “disgusting couple” in terms of public displays of affection, their fanbase has never been stronger, each building upon the other to grow – and it’s the same for the two of them, too. Laura herself attributed so much of her progress in cosplay to Chris’ tutelage.

The crossover between fandoms has also resulted in them becoming a lot more well known to a wider range of cosplay fans.

Of this phenomena, Chris said, “I’ll have little Harley’s come up to me and I’ll assure them that Laura won’t be too long, and they’ll ask for a photo with me! We’re honestly so grateful and pleased with the support.”

And it’s lucky they are, because the pair can’t keep their eyes off each other.

ON BEING RECOGNISED

Though she’s considered pursuing cosplay full time (and decided against it in the end), her ambition Now that their profiles are raised, it’s becoming harder may mean saying goodbye to the Harley locks. and harder to avoid being recognised in real life – even without the familiarity of the cosplay. Chris’s reputation “As someone who wants to be a high school music in his hometown has elevated significantly, which came teacher, the schools aren’t too happy with it. The as a surprise as he’d expected the demographic to lean hair is going to have to go next year when I really towards more of a surfer-friendly fanbase as opposed to pursue my degree and become a student teacher.” geek culture.

She’s done two placements so far and the general For Laura however, anonymity isn’t a luxury she gets consensus is not in favour – especially if she is to to have. “My hair is a dead giveaway,” she said. “I don’t work in more conservative areas or private schools. actively get people coming up to me. Sometimes I’ll hear She’s adamant that she can help facilitate change in them say ‘Oh that’s that Harley Quinn chick!’ but never attitude as her career progresses though. approaching. It’s a constant insecurity for me at times, having the coloured hair and not being able to blend in” “It’s frustrating because we want to teach children that they shouldn’t judge people on their Thankfully her studies haven’t been interrupted due to appearance and encourage their self expression, so the attention – in fact, at uni that kind of self expression I find it contradictory and I’d love to change that stereotype in the future when I become the cool is encouraged. Next year however, things will change. music teacher.”

FOLLOW CHRIS & LAURA ON SOCIALS & CHECK OUT THEIR ETSY STORE HERE! & CONVENTION FOOD Chris and Laura are definitely the type of couple who like to go out, and when they do there’s always something delicious on the menu. With Instagram pages dominated by the latest meal, there was only one question: how does convention food compare?

“My quinoa salad was right up there! I’m not going to lie, I’d give it an eight out of ten – actually maybe even an eight and a half,” said Laura. “If that was on a nice plate and was served to me in a restaurant, you’d be on board with it.” As for Chris?

“The potato fluffiness to crispiness ratio in my hot chips was perfect”. And really, could you ask for more?

WHY I’M WORRIED ABOUT

Our biggest DC fan Alaisdair Leith laments on what has been and what could be in the DC shared universe.

So first of all yes the title is total click bait, so thanks for clicking! It is no secret that the DC Extended Universe has been critically panned for its first three films, in particular the disastrous critic response to Batman Vs. Superman : Dawn Of Justice and Suicide Squad was overwhelming. It seemed that professional critics and online self-appointed critics didn’t enjoy the films and couldn’t stand seeing a company doing a comic book film that wasn’t an exact replica of its rival Marvel who have enjoyed a slew of success both critically and commercially with the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) Instead of a light and bright films with as many one line zingers as you can fit into as many scenes as possible, DC comics employed Zak Snyder to bring a darker tone and make their heroes fit into the real world and pose the question “How would the world actually react if Superman was real?”

It all started with Man Of Steel, starring Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman, Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent, Amy Adams as Lois Lane and Michael Shannon as General Zod. The film grossed worldwide $668 million and has a 55% Rotten Tomatoes score claiming “mixed or average reviews” Some of the biggest complaints of the film is that Superman was too dark, the “Snyder vision” as some critics were calling it was dark and gritty with over the top video game action scenes that are too hard to watch.

The film took in a total of $666 million worldwide and successfully launched the DCEU (DC Extended Universe). After divisive reviews the studio powered forward with the announcement of Ben Affleck as Batman which helmed the term Battfleck. Following this was the semi-sequel to MOS titled Batman Vs Superman : Dawn Of Justice. From the 5 second reveal clip at Comic-Con to the full trailer and movie release started turning the DCEU as the movie divided both and and critics with a crushing score of 27% on Rotten Tomatoes and generally had a thumbs down from critics.

Fans either loved the direction or hated it with some of the most intense comments and banter I have ever read on Reddit, Facebook posts and message boards. The film was still a financial success taking in over $800 million at the box office and then releasing an Ultimate Edition with an extra 30 minutes of footage fleshing some of the scenes further.

Geoff Johns was brought in as a producer and to also become the Kevin Feige of the DCEU tasked with the job to bring light and hope to the future of the series. As Justice League filming was nearing completion a tragedy struck director Zak Snyder’s family and he had to step down from continuing his work on the film. To everyone’s surprise famed director of The Avengers, Joss Whedon came on board to finish the film and helmed some reshoots. He also decided to replace Junkie XL as the soundtrack producer and brought in friend Danny Elfman to completely redo the score and soundtrack.

The film took in a total of $666 million worldwide and successfully launched the DCEU (DC Extended Universe). After divisive reviews the studio powered forward with the announcement of Ben Affleck as Batman which helmed the term Battfleck. Following this was the semi-sequel to MOS titled Batman Vs Superman : Dawn Of Justice. From the 5 second reveal clip at Comic-Con to the full trailer and movie release started turning the DCEU as the movie divided both and and critics with a crushing score of 27% on Rotten Tomatoes and generally had a thumbs down from critics. Fans either loved the direction or hated it with some of the most intense comments and banter I have ever read on Reddit, Facebook posts and message boards.

The film was still a financial success taking in over $800 million at the box office and then releasing an Ultimate Edition with an extra 30 minutes of footage fleshing some of the scenes further.

Just when DC thought they could maybe catch a break, Suicide Squad was released later on in the year focusing on a team of super villains coming together to save the world. The film was a colossal critical nightmare with the story, acting, characters and directing. While it did make $700 million at the box office, an extended edition was also released on blu-ray and dvd. One good thing to come out of the film was the performance of Harley Quinn played by Margot Robbie was near perfect casting and cemented her place in the future of the DCEU. Suprisingly the film won two Oscars for make up and music.

Things were not looking bright for the future of the DCEU and with filming of Justice League and Aquaman films naering completion it was clear that some changes needed to happen.

While all of these events led to look like crazy behind the scenes drama which would normally result in a mess of a film. Everyone involved in this film keeps pushing a lighter tone, more jokes, more humour, more fun. I personally enjoyed the dark and real world tone of the DC films, my main concern that DC may be trying to apply the Marvel formula to this universe and may now see a major shift in tone and if it goes down the route of the Marvel zinger jokey films, personally I am going to be very disappointed.

Rather than continue with their vision and allow for the story and events to unfold the way they were originally intended, I am concerned that the studio wants the money and will do anything they can to replicate the success that Marvel has had, to the detriment of these characters and the story.

After seeing various media press interviews with Henry Cavill very present and the jokes about him being back, I think they could have just left him our, or have a trailer that showed that he was present. Rumours and instagram photos of a black Superman suit and doubts about his allegiance when he does come back have me concerned that he will not be the Superman we know and love and have been begging for in the DCEU. This is the third film with Superman in it and we need/deserve a hopeful and positive one.

The Justice League review is the turn of a page away...

If you haven’t been into the latest films from DC Comics, that’s fine they’ve not been the best superhero films to ever grace the screen big or small. However, this is actually one of the better ones if you don’t mind Henry Cavill’s moustache to have been digitally removed in almost every scene – so it looks like it’s someone else’s mouth slapped on his face.

low and behold good character interaction. The latter no doubt helped by the talents of step in Director Joss Whedon, more about that later. But while Justice League is the better film so far, they still have a long way to go before this DC universe is churning out quality super hero films.

Justice League has come too soon for there to be any With three films now released in the world of Bruce major relationships built with the characters. Batman Wayne and his band of really strong and advanced has been around and everyone knows his deal, he’s human misfits. Batman vs Superman, the film so few rich and knows some good karate moves. But after the enjoyed and Wonder Woman, plagued by terrible Christopher Nolan series it’s hard to adjust to this dull CGI. Justice League manages to finally find its feet in and underwhelming Superhero played by Ben Affleck. the DC universe and provide an action packed and Superman has been around just as long if not longer

eroes.

on Jay Cook

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and everyone understands his mission on Earth. While Henry Cavill’s portrayal of Superman is pretty good, his stand alone films haven’t been that entertaining.

Wonder Woman was the last to be introduced and aside from being an exceptionally good fighter, she’s got some pretty snazzy arm shields to push you away.

Wonder Woman was the first film in the lead up to Justice League where we haven’t really gotten to know her character as much as the previous two. Despite the movie being received well, it is still rather juvenile in its development.

time!

together. First is the much hyped Aqua Man played

by Jason Momoa. It’s hard to see Mamoa as anything but his character from Game of Thrones, however his stand alone film due out in 2018 should be a winner.

Second is Ray Fisher’s character Cyborg who is a dead pan, angry, part man part robot. This character in particular wasn’t given enough time to showcase his story and history which made this the hardest character to associate or connect with. And finally there is the big screen version of The Flash played by Ezra Miller. Of all the new additions to the league this is the character with the most relatable personality.

But there are still three characters audiences haven’t He’s new to his powers and is still uncomfortable and met to build relationships with prior to the band getting awkward.

lay dormant for thousands of years. Aquaman and his fellow Atlantis colony try their best to protect the second box. But despite being underwater, Steppenwolf manages to acquire that as well. Finally there is the box hidden by man which was used to help create Cyborg and also to bring a certain super man back to life. With Steppenwolf in possession of the three boxes the Mother Box comes into power and only Cyborg who has its technology in him can manage to save the The story goes something like this: Superman is dead day with the help of the strength of Superman. and the world has fallen into a slump filled with fear.

From this fear an old enemy is awakened, Steppenwolf, A fairly good story line and a relatively well executed who is collecting three boxes that combined give him visual adventure, Justice League seems to feel really an amazing power to suck the life from Earth. With disjointed. This may be in part to the fact that Director this news Batman and Wonder Woman team up and Zack Snyder had to step away from the production recruit what becomes the Justice League. Wonder for some terrible family circumstances. From this Woman’s Amazons try to protect one box which has point, Director Joss Whedon stepped in to finish it With such major players in the DC franchise it would make sense to build up to the first League movie so their backstory and value is understood. Rather you have a group of misfits with no understanding of where they’ve come from and why they are together.

Aside from the obvious point that Bruce Wayne found them to save the world he just found out is about to get taken over by Steppenwolf.

off. However Whedon needed to make some changes and had some reshoots which resulted in this film that going from dark and dry to comical and somewhat filled with life. Whedon used his skill in creating great chemistry on screen between actors and reshot a great deal of “connective tissue” which gave the film a great element for the audience to connect with the characters. While this completely works it’s this that also gave it the disjointed feel.

While for the most part the all-star cast worked their magic, there were two worthy of mentioning. First is Ben Affleck’s adaptation of Batman the fifth actor to tackle this character. And while the last cinema Batman was in 2012 it’s hard to not compare Affleck him to the Christian Bale version. They are two very different portrayals which is really noticeable in

Justice League. Batman is a dull character who doesn’t do a whole lot and tends to whimper in regards to the other superheros. The best way to describe this is when The Flash asks him exactly what his super power is to which Bruce Wayne replies, “I’m rich”.

On the other hand there is Barry Allen or The Flash played by Ezra Miller who steals every single scene he is in. This is the one character that stands out and happens to give life to an otherwise dull film. The audience tend to get more of an understanding of this character than the others despite the short amount of screen time. He is learning to understand the full potential of his powers, he’s fun and cheeky and while he’s clearly the younger more inexperienced of the team, it feels like he brings everyone together. This is a perfect case of great casting.

The 17th chapter of the MCU.

Words by Mark Halyday

Thor: Ragnarok is the highly entertaining conclusive threequel of this branch of a solo superhero story, wrapping things in a nice little bow a la Iron Man 3 and Captain America: Civil War while still propelling its best cast onwards to The Avengers and other characters’ stories.

More interestingly, it is the seventeenth chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the three quarter point of the twenty-two episode story that culminates in 2019’s Avengers 4.

entity Satur that causes Ragnarok is realised wonderfully in the opening scene as a villain-ofthe-week with a bland plan to bring about the movie’s title. That he never colluded with Hela, that he was so easily foiled and that the end of Asgard was ultimately Thor’s decision with Satur a mere means to an end jolts the audience awake and stops the franchise from getting boorish and predictable. Thought the Winter Soldier was the villain of Captain America: The Winter Solider?

Well yes, but also HYDRA 2.0 and Robert It’s certainly the best Thor movie by a long Redford’s murdery Helicarriers. Thought Thor: stretch – they will be incontrovertibly ranked Ragnarok would feature Ragnarok, the Norse as Ragnarok, the original, The Dark World. The apocalypse of Asgard? Well yes, but only to kill reason it excels is that the movie is more self- Thor’s unknown evil sister Hela via Part 1 of aware and the studio is more conscientious Planet Hulk. of it’s previous pitfalls. The original’s mix of pompous and circumstance with fish-out-of- Ah yes, Hulk. The Jade Giant. The Green Goliath. water silliness was a soft success that could not In the nitty-gritty paperwork side of things, be outright repeated without inducing sequel Marvel owns the majority of its characters sans cynicism, so The Dark World went full Norse the ones noted here. Fox owns the X-Men and with more Asgard, more royalty and more lore. Fantastic Four, and formerly owned Daredevil Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor delivered before the rights reverted to Marvel. Sony a four hour epic too far astray from what Disney owns Spiderman but shares him with Disney were promised when they bought Marvel and in an attempt to salvage his sullied reputation. the edit was brutal. What remained was an The Hulk’s rights have reverted however there overcomplicated revenge flick with an Infinity is a clause in perpetuity (forever!) that states Stone shoehorned in for good measure, but not Universal will distribute a standalone Hulk film, without a few saving graces. and it’s bad business for Disney to give Universal all that money. But how does this affect the fans Ragnarok picks and chooses what it wants and this movie? to be. It’s still got a studio-sanctioned cameo from Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange, The second act of Thor: Ragnarok is Thor cast out but it’s early in the piece and quick, if a little from his world. Could have been anywhere, but disorientating and redundant. It knows Thor especially due to the parallels with the original, and Loki are the stars of the show and quickly it best be bombastic. Planet Hulk focuses on dispatches Anthony Hopkins’ Odin and Natalie Hulk leaving Earth for Sakaar and becoming the Portman’s Jane Foster to accommodate. The Odin champion of a battling arena. There’s pieces about death was done quite well – as a consequence to humanity’s resentment to Hulk and the big guy’s Loki’s scheme, Frigga’s death in The Dark World dislike of Bruce Banner, but maybe not given the and a kickstarter for Ragnarok. To die in Norway gravitas it deserved. But it’s the bones of Planet surrounded by family was a nice touch too. In Hulk, no doubt about it. The fact that Thor is the contrast, Jane’s absence is given a throwaway line throughline of the entire film doesn’t take away with even less poignance than either Avengers any of the character development afforded to the movies due to her character’s overwhelming giant green rage monster. uselessness. Natalie Portman is not a bad actress – in a perfect world she could be a next-gen Thor The team-up is a raging success, and suddenly similar to the comics – but this role was always the Thor trilogy could almost be seen as a trio of an impediment to original storytelling. duos. The original is Thor and Jane, the sequel is Thor and Loki, and the threequel is Thor and But before any of these chess pieces are moved the Hulk. Thor is such a textbook hero, a soldier film jolts the audience out of whatever formulaic similar to Captain America, that he needs these affair envisioned. The fire-demon-monster- contrasts to enhance him. In this viewing pattern

it makes Tom Hiddleston’s Loki to step back – from antagonist to accomplice to… brother?

His role was more distant this time around and strangely didn’t steal every scene he was in.

Maybe there’s just stiffer competition – from a more confident (read: relaxed) Thor to Hulk to the Grandmaster to Valkyrie to Hela.

It’s symptomatic of the few flaws in the movie.

Hela works as a villain. An unknown sister released from her prison for not absolutely contrived reasons has plenty of reasons to take of Asgard and then… the universe! Double Oscar winner Cate Blanchett eats up the okay-enough script despite spending the majority of the film with campy anti-villain Skurge. She looks slick.

Everything clicks. It’s very clean… and maybe it’s because she is not the reason Ragnarok comes to fruition or perhaps something else but something or another doesn’t click. She ranks around Zemo on the villian list, far above Malekith and Ronan but below Loki or Stane.

Elsewhere new addition Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie does better at being a character in one movie than Jane, Sif or the Warrior Three’s trilogy screentime combined. Kudos for Marvel for putting a bullet (or rather a knife) in the silly side characters and not affording them the opportunity to bloat up Ragnarok. Jamie Alexander’s Sif wasn’t available for filming, genuinely, and Fiege notes her absence allowed them to spare her from Hela’s wrath.

It is the best Thor movie due to the relentless humour that some accuse is photocopied from Guardians of the Galaxy. Firstly, that’s not a bad thing, but it doesn’t seem to be the rip-off insinuated. Guardians cares, and goes out of its way to build a ‘family’ of misfits’ relationships.

Thor’s humour doesn’t care, is irreverent to almost everything going on and doesn’t pause for everything. That works 97% of the time, a resounding score, but it would remiss not to mention the 3%. Banner was trapped as the Hulk for two years, which he is trying to process during the escape of Sakaar. He tells Thor and company that transforming into the Hulk could be permanent and that this frightens him. Later on he is prepared to risk this eventuality to save the citizens of Asgard and in his big heroic moment the music swells, the camera pans wide and Banner’s face smashes into whatever the Norse/Marvel word is for Mariokart’s Rainbow Road. It felt disrespectful to an important moment in the character’s history for a cheap laugh. The humour saved Thor: Ragnarok and the Thor trilogy in general, but this joke should never have made the final cut.

Aside from this the film lands another tick in the win column for Marvel. It is the final film of any of the Phase One foursome (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America) and in that sense, lends a really penultimate feel to the sprawling arc that began when I was thirteen years old. Sure, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Spiderman, Doctor Strange, Black Panther and Captain Korg the rock monster is the breakout star of the Marvel have been added to the roster of original whole ordeal, a chummy and joyful character solo series but these were the original four. voiced by director Taika Waititi. And Idris Elba is finally granted a plot worthy of his cast. In As a final note, congratulations to the Gold the same way it’s hard to pinpoint what doesn’t Coast and any Australians that participated in quantify Hela as the best villain that ever was this production. It was a big coup and Chris it’s hard to pinpoint what went so right with Hemsworth is worth every cent of taxpayer this Heimdell. Mostly just a shepherd for the money to be a fair dinkum ambassador for us. refugees fleeing their wartorn land, Elba knocks And a little shoutout to lovers of independent it out of the park with one hand tied behind his cinema too, because it is phenomenal Taika back. On a bigger picture scale, it was surprising Waititi was afforded this opportunity. He did that the sixth Infinity Stone wasn’t revealed to be as finer job as Whedon, Gunn or the Russo in the Asgardian’s possession. Many believe his Brothers and it is likely Marvel will utilise him powers are aligned with the Soul Stone the mad elsewhere down the line. titan Thanos is seeking, and while that still may be the case, time is running out to showcase it Thor: Ragnarok is a fun time at the movies with a before Avengers: Infinity War. good story, entertaining characters, lots of jokes and a Hulk. What more do you want?

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FROM FIVE BLOCKBUSTER DIRECTORS FROM BEFORE THEY WERE VIES SMALL MO

#1

Starting us off is Thor: Ragnarok’s Director Taika Waititi. This talented humourist hailing from New Zealand is probably most well known for his role as the best friend in the Green Lantern movie adaptation.

Possibly not the greatest movie to launch your international career, but I’m sure it would have had something to do with where he is today. But before he was handed the reigns of the latest Marvel blockbuster, Waititi managed to direct a few movies you’ve probably never heard of. One stand out is What We Do In The Shadows, a hilarious mockumentary style comedy that will make you have a good ol’ chuckle.

What We Do In The Shadows follows the life of three Vampires who dwell in Wellington, New Zealand. These century old Vampires still have on nights out in the city, but only if they get invited into the club. They turn a young man into a vampire who introduces them to the latest in technology and they become fascinated by YouTube videos of sunrises. Their best friend is human and often hangs out with them despite the hazards. It’s quirky to say the least, but absolute comic genius.

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!

IG B

#2

Second on the list is Director of the 2014 hit sensation Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and of the following Vol. 2 and TBA Vol 3. Another Marvel masterpiece left to the directorial devices of a virtually unknown who goes by the name of James Gunn. However, back in 2006 Gunn managed to somehow write and direct possibly the weirdest movie I've ever sat down to watch, Slither.

Slither is one of those weird films that were all the rage mid to late 2000s. Usually about possessed or mutated humans like the vagina with teeth. Yep that film exists, and it's fine if you didn't see it though it did get a surprising 79 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

It’s an interesting blend between comedy and horror as some space rock crashes into earth and the creature living inside attaches itself to the town's bully. But slowly it consumes the residence of this town and turns them into zombies.

If you don't find the prosthetics and CGI horrifying with all its gore and dripping blood and guts, it teeters on being hilarious as it's so far fetched. Don't get me wrong it's B grade viewing, but well worth a watch as it nods to those 80s films of similar genre.

And just as a quick aside, Gunn also penned one of the great Zombie films, Dawn of the Dead back in 2004. So you can trust that even though Slither is B grade, it's top-notch B grade comedic horror.

Words by Jason Cook

#3

Safety Not Guaranteed is a really cool concept that just never got the attention it deserved. A shelf-stacking loner takes out an advertisement in a local newspaper looking for a companion to travel into space. While their safety isn’t guaranteed three people from the newspaper head out to investigate and write a story on the mysterious advertisement. In the build up to the ending we discover they are building a time machine.

This is one of those films that took on the new wave of the early 2010s called “mumblecore”.

It’s where the character’s and the dialogue are more important that the plot itself. You’ll mostly find this used in indie films where there’s flexibility for the actors to improvise to give their characters and interactions a more natural feel, as Aubrey Plaza so perfectly demonstrated in this film.

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#4

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Third on the list of Directors before they were Blockbuster Directors is Colin Trevorrow. The film that paved the way to his headliner Jurassic World is from 2012, Safety Not Guaranteed.

Despite Jurassic World making (USD) $1.6 billion at the box office worldwide, another virtually unknown Director nabbed the sequel due out in 2018, but we’re not talking about him today.

Mark Forster is famous for the second instalment of the Daniel Craig 007 James Bond films, Quantum of Solace. Forster has a pretty good resume of films prior to his break out blockbuster Quantum of Solace that took over (USD) $5.8 million at the box office worldwide.

One stand out film from Forster is from 2006, Stranger Than Fiction. Forster took two amazing actors, one outstanding in comedy the other outstanding in drama and managed to create a very unique film. Will Ferrell leads this story where he finds one day his mundane life is being narrated by none other than Emma Thompson. It turns out Thompson is actually writing her next great novel. But like all great novels not even the writer knows how it will end, until it does.

There's this perfect balance between the two contrasting performers but for such a simple and otherwise plain idea, their performances give the film a whole lot of depth and vulnerability you wouldn't otherwise find.

#5

Rounding out the list is Patty Jenkins, for what other reason than they (girls) run the world. If you haven’t heard that name mentioned a few times this year then you haven’t seen Wonder Woman. One of 2017s biggest hits taking in (USD) $8.2 million worldwide.

To put that into perspective Jenkins is the Director of the highest grossing film by a female Director, trumping Phyllida Lloyd who directed Mamma Mia back in 2008 and took in a staggering (USD) $6 mill worldwide.

It had been 14 years since Jenkins made it back to the big screen. Back in 2003 Jenkins wrote and directed one of the most powerful films to have ever graced the screen, Monster. This was the film that put Charleze Theron on the map and showed just what girls can do for the big screen. Theron manages to completely change her appearance for the film and gave such a raw and brutal performance it was sometimes hard to watch.

Based on true-life events it follows Prostitute and murderer Aileen Wuornos who would murder t he men she would be paid to have sex with.

That is until she meets love interest Selby (Christina Ricci) and decides to put her past behind her, but bad habits are hard to break.

An impeccable cast and a great story miss the landing.

Words by Alaisdair Leith.

In a year of sequels, threequels and superhero films, there is also the remake. Murder On The Orient Express is adapted from Agatha Christie’s famous novel which has been made in two previous films. For this iteration we get a superstar cast shot in 65mm, is all glamour and glitz with the suspense and mystery get lost in translation.

The film stars (and is directed by) Kenneth Branagh who plays french detective Hercule Poirot donning an extra long grey mustache, meets his buddy Bouc (Tom Bateman) on an assignment in Istanbul, they climb aboard the Orient Express, a luxury train in the 1930’s scattered with first and second class guests. They all meet in the dining car and running through the players here we have the scowling Russian exile Princess Dragomiroff (Judi Dench) and her maid, Hildegarde (Olivia Colman); Ratchett (Johnny Depp), an American antiques dealer accompanied by his English valet, Masterman (Derek Jacobi), and his alcoholic secretary, MacQueen (Josh Gad); Dr. Arbuthnot (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Miss Debenham (Daisy Ridley),the Count and Countess Andrenyi (Sergei Polunin and Lucy Boynton), Hardman (Willem Dafoe),Miss Estravados (Penélope Cruz), the car salesman Marquez (Manuel García-Rulfo); and Mrs. Hubbard (Michelle Pfeiffer). It is an impressive and diverse cast who are astoundingly good actors in their own right and all bring their A game to this film. I do have to mention that Johnny Depp is phenomenal in this film, like amazing. It is so good to see him playing a role that isn’t a pirate or a character that is over the top and a stereotype. Welcome back Mr.Depp!

Pfieffer is a phenomenal actress who has had an amazing career. She shines in this movie and does the most with what she is given. Similarly Branagh is charming as Poirot and the film gets off to a great start, but then towards the end Branagh seems to come off the rails a bit and the character is a bit confusing by the end. The rest of the cast are fine, as formentioned Depp shows a step back to acting again. Ridley steals the scene whenever she is on the screen and is great to see her in a role outside of Star Wars.

A lot of my issues with the film comes from the set and production, the original film looked lavish and grand with locations and both the trains and set pieces. This film heavily relies on a CGI train and locations and this is to the extreme detriment of the film. These setup scenes at the start were disappointing and looked like a cheap mess. While the set design team should be happy with the interior of the train looking grand and luxurious in comparison to the cheap facade of the ouside. Similarly the costumes and make up were true to the time period and helped contribute to the luxurious feeling of travelling on the Orient Express.

While the story didn’t always stick to the original and a lot of the suspense moments were rushed and missed by poor editing choices that chopped through some of the character arcs and left it feeling a little empty. This is also evident at the end of the film with the reveal of the killer and the end of Poirot’s character resolve as he walks away. They could have easily added a further 10-15 minutes to further flesh these out and it wouldn’t have taken away from the film.

Overall Murder On The Orient Express will When one of the guests is murdered, Poirot is impress millenials and those who have not seen implored by Bouc to solve the murder and all the previous versions, while I would have loved of this is helped as an avalanche stops the train to have my Nan with me reliving memories of giving him a 24-48 hour window to interrogate my childhood watching the originals on VHS, the guests and find out who did it. With an array I fear she may disappointed with the quality of of clues that link most of the others to do it, the this remake leaving me the question of, did we interrogations and events unfold for Poirot to really need this remake? Honestly…probably solve the mystery and the train to get back on not. While it is enjoyable for the cast and some the tracks. A few liberties have been taken with of the set pieces, overall it didn’t deliver and the addressing of some racism and sexism that could probably wait for the next iteration of this were ignored in the previous versions. classic story.

Review by Jason Cook

A weird one srtarring Matt Damon and Julianne Moore

George Clooney takes to directing his latest venture combining two interesting films with two different story lines all in one.

Suburbicon is the story about the fight for racial segregation and another story about a home invasion. The two stories hardly intertwine and one dominates the other so much so that the concept and execution was a careless and insulting narration on racial segregation in the 1950s. Not only that, Suburbicon is down right confusing and hard to understand what’s going on.

the substance of the film. You knew where it came from and where it was going unlike the other story line. The two together just didn’t make sense.

Matt Damon plays the devoted husband and father on the surface but that soon changes, as he becomes a killer. Damon channels something very dark and frightening especially when he talks to his son in one of the final scenes. But he doesn’t shy away from the Damon – Clooney style humour and delivery that has come to be expected Suburbicon is a story about a 1950s from the two. Not his best performance, but community built after the Second World certainly played well.

War as an affordable place for veterans to live with their families. Everyone gets along Julianne Moore plays twin sisters Rose and and nothing bad ever happens. That is until Margaret in an over the top creepy and an African American family moves into the murderous mother/aunty figure. Moore neighbourhood. The community is against seems to have this evil persona creeping having this family live next door to them under the façade of a smiling happy person so they protest all day and all night in hope down pact. She did the same for her last role they might leave. The young boy of the family in The Kingsman: Golden Circle. As the twin makes friends with the boy, Nicky, in the sister Margaret however Moore has more house behind. relatable mannerisms until things go pear shaped.

Sadly Nicky’s mother, Rose, and wife to Gardner has just died in a horrible home The standout performance has to go to Nicky invasion which the Nicky had witnessed. To played Noah Jupe. He plays the son of Matt make matters worse Nicky finds out that his Damon and goes on a whole rollercoaster of father and his mothers sister who happens to emotions. The final scene where he’s at the be her twin had coordinated with the Mob to kitchen table talking with his father, or rather kill Rose for the insurance money. being talked to, Jupe manages to capture some absolutely stunning facial emotions that It is hard to get your head around why there truly suck you in what is a rather confronting are these two different story lines running at scene. the same time or what is was Clooney was going for. The stories hardly intertwine aside Suburbicon is a dark comedy about two from the boys playing catch with each other. stories that don’t work together. This is one There’s hardly any dialogue from the African of those cases where you either like how American family, which makes it feel more Clooney directs his films or you wont like it. like a time filler than anything else. The There is some stand out hilarious scenes but story would have been a fine one if it were a for the most part it is disjointed and hard to stand-alone. The other story line about Rose’s follow or understand exactly how everything death had a lot more information and was is piecing together. As it turns out, it doesn’t.

Jay Cook looks at the latest Reese Witherspoon flick

When would you ever let a stranger stay in your home? Two of them? Three of them? It would just never happen, especially when you’re a single mother of two young daughters. In possibly one the most far-fetched romantic comedies, this unbelievable circumstance completely works in Reece Witherspoon’s latest, Home Again.

One thing you will notice with Home Again is a whole lot of similarities to other rom-coms, in particular to the 2007 film The Holiday starring Kate Winslet and Jude Law. In The Holiday the movie bases itself around a talented composer of Hollywood films that no longer creates music. In Home Again it revolves around the daughter of a Hollywood film Director. Even the score of Home Again has similarities to The Holiday. And finally the colour saturation used to incite emotion is very similar, if not the same yellow colour and feeling.

The similarities are easy to make because the Writer, Director and Producer of The Holiday is Nancy Meyers who also happens to be the mother of the Writer and Director of Home again Hallie Meyers. Hallie Myers had grown up on the sets of many a rom-com so it was inevitable she would find herself directing one at some point. This is Myers debut into the writing and directing arena and seems to do it with ease, perhaps with the safety net of having her mother onset producing the film alongside her.

three young men. Lillian takes a liking to the boys over common ground, as the boys happen to be pitching their movie to executives and currently have nowhere to live. So Lillian invites the boys to live in the guest room adjacent to the house. Alice’s girls take a liking to the boys as they become a big help for around the house and emotional support for Alice as well. That’s until the sexual relationship between Alice and Harry becomes too much and she asks them to move out.

Alice’s husband Austin played by the talented Michael Sheen, comes back into the picture from New York to be closer to his girls. But despite some altercations between Austin and Teddy everyone manages to live happily ever after and Alice has everything she needs. Realising this as everyone sits to a lovely meal, curiously made all by herself in a vastly small amount of time.

For the most part there is no stand out performances, it’s rather a “wish-washy” development of characters. Most “acting” was done by looking left and looking right, implying they are thinking about something. There seems to be a lack of depth to the characters with no attempt to change that. However there are two amazing partnerships within Home Again giving you the impression the relationship between the two actors are genuine. It’s between one of the boys, George and one of the daughters, Isabel. When George makes it to Isabel’s final performance the emotion Home Again starring Reece Witherspoon (Big displayed was a throat tightening moment.

Little Lies, Wild, Legally Blond) is the story of a newly separated mother Alice and her two young Reece Witherspoon isn’t known to venture away girls Isabel (Lola Flanery) and Rosie (Eden Grace from her highly emotional bubbly characters.

Redfield). She must have really needed to escape her Even with her most acclaimed roles, Witherspoon partner because she moved her little family across manages to maintain her default character. But the country. From New York to Los Angeles Alice in this case it is exactly what makes her character moves back into her childhood home and residence work. Maybe she’s just destined to Hugh Grant – of her late father Film Director John Kinney. On a stuck with rom-coms. night out with the girls for her birthday Alice meets a dashing young Man, Harry (Pico Alexander) and For an unbelievable film, it’s something fun. A his two friends Teddy (Nat Wolff) and George (Jon middle-aged woman finding she doesn’t need to Rudnitsky). Drunk, Alice and her friends bring the be in a long-term relationship to be happy. She significantly younger boys back to her house while finds happiness in three young filmmakers who her Children are staying with her mother, Lillian fulfill her in many different ways and change the (Candice Bergen). life of herself and her two daughters. There are a few laugh-out-loud moments, but otherwise the In a comedic turn of events Lillian drops the humour is circumstantial. But if you don’t expect children come home early only to discover the anything you’ll be happily surprised.

LAURA BAILEY

ORKING W EST D THE HAR ICE ACTING O V IN WAD WOMAN AS ELLE ISAB O T 017 2 TALKS A V O SUPAN F O D EA AH

Isabelle: Are you looking forward to coming to Australia for Supanova Pop Culture Expo?

Have you been here before?

Laura: I have been, a long time ago, I’m coming out in November. Oh yeah, I’m very excited. I can’t wait to meet the fans out there again.

How does one achieve such an illustrious career as a voice actress? Where did you get your break?

I started actually in anime working on Dragonball Z as Kid Trunks; the little boy with kind of a big punk attitude. And I just moved on from there, I started working on video games and other cartoons after that.

What’s it like playing boys, with your voice?

It’s funny, that was the voice acting I ever did and I didn’t really think anything of it. But it actually, I think, helped me out a lot, because it helped understand more of my range right from the very beginning. I tend to play little boys that are like little jerks, who always talk back to authority and everything. So it’s always a blast to play them. I have a great time with Trunks and Shin Chan.

to see friends, it’s just a freaking dream job, I’m so I love with what I do.

In comparison to regular scripts for tv and film, how long does it take to record for video games, and how taxing is it?

It can be, it definitely can be. Usually there’s quite a few sessions dedicated just to idle chatter or you know dialogue you would have as you were getting attacked or fighting or anything like that, so physically that can be very draining, because for four hours straight screaming at the top of your lungs, dying in different ways. But for the most part, the studios that I work with are so generous and careful to not spend too much time on those super draining lines.

With over 384 credits to your name on IMDB what has been your favourite project to work It depends on the video game how long it takes to on and why? actually record the entire process. Usually if I’m filming on the mo-cap (motion capture) stages, Oh jeez really! Oh that’s difficult, there’s been it can take, you know a year to two years to film so many years of recording. O gosh! I’m having a game. And then after that we’ll have the ina blast working more in motion capture lately, game dialogue recording sessions, so then having because you get to fully embody the characters another few months on top of the actual filming. you know. So some of the stuff I’ve had a lot of So it can be a really long process. fun working on with that is Uncharted 4, which is so much fun, and making such an amazing There’s no doubt about the success of some character. Fetch and Infamous Second Son and of these games, Uncharted and Injustice are Infamous First Light was an amazing character absolute cult favourites, and the characters you to play as well. And there’s some really fun stuff voice are just as popular. Do fans of the games coming up that I working on right now, that I know who you are? Do you get stopped on the can’t talk about just yet, but… street?

What do you love most about your work?

You know, ever since I started working and filming Critical Role, which is the show I do with I love that my imagination gets sparked every other voice actor friends of mine where we play single day, you know. I know that I’m incredibly dungeons and dragons online, I get recognized lucky to get to do what I do because when I go for that because it’s actually our faces out there, into work it really feels like play time, you know. so people know what we look like more often Every day going into a different studio and getting now.

characters, what’s it like voicing someone like and study, because acting is so much about her? And do you incorporate any of yourself in getting that lucky break, that once you do get the way she speaks? that break you have to have the ability and the technical capabilities to back that lucky break Well we did film that, so her mannerisms are my up, so you can continue to work. mannerisms which is pretty great. And I did a lot of dialect training and everything to make sure Your husband Travis (Willingham) is also the accent was as good as it could be. So yeah, I a voice actor, do you ever work on the same mean it was very physically taxing that role. projects?

With the DC Universe taking off in the last few years as well, how much fun is it voicing such a well-known and much-loved character like Supergirl in Injustice?

Yeah, we’ve actually worked on a lot of projects together. The first one, I think, one of the first ones we ever worked on was Fullmetal Alchemist, which was an anime we did back in Texas. We’re both in Avengers Assemble, so (Laughs) It’s crazy being Supergirl. I was a I play Black Widow and he plays Thor in that fan of injustice already, so we recorded that cartoon series, and so many others. Actually, game and we actually did the face-cap (facial Infamous Second Sons, one of the other video capture) for it. So every time we would have games I talked about, he played Reggie, one of this amazing battle lines and intro to the battle the other leads in the game. and everything. And they’re so giving to the fans and to the DC fan base. They write those And do you ever record together? characters so well. The response has been amazing online. I haven’t seen, I haven’t been No, we actually filmed together on that, and you to many conventions since the game has come know, the Avengers Assemble cartoon, records out so I haven’t gotten to see the fan reaction in as a group, so every Wednesday afternoon person, so I’m really looking forward to coming I record with my husband, which is pretty to supernova. I’m really looking forward to it. awesome!

What advice could you give anyone hoping to What’s next for Laura Bailey? make it in this industry?

Well, Shadow of War, released today which is a I would say, pursue it like you would any other video game I worked on that I’m really excited career. So really seek out training. You know about, and we’re working on the DLC context one of the things I always say is if you wanted of that right now, my character has the DLC for to be a doctor you wouldn’t just show up at that game, so that should be really exciting. And the hospital and say hand me a scalpel I can gosh, so many other things coming up that I do surgery now you would train for years and wish I could talk about, and it kills me to not be really understand what you were doing, and able to say it. But keep on the lookout and you that’s what you have to do to be an actor as well, can check my twitter which is @LauraBaileyVO you know. Especially voice acting because so because I usually post the new projects as they’re much of it is very technical, so, study and study coming out.

BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW! MEET LAURA BAILEY AT

Weird.

Worth it.

For the full review, click this giant head <<<< <<<<

Words by Mark Halyday

What is the best show on Netflix?

Even without the recent sacking of Kevin Spacey it’s not the formerly excellent House of Cards. That lost all momentum at the end of season three. Is it the ensemble of tortured souls in Orange Is the New Black? No again, as its experiment into a shorter time frame yielded a torturous fifth season. The Crown? Narcos?

Marvel’s Jessica Jones or Luke Cage? Quality surely, but not #1.

of the cast as anybody else. The Duffer Brothers should be applauded for experimenting and worldbuilding with a town other than Hawkins and supernatural beings other than Eleven.

Elsewhere the trio of Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin continue to soar above the rest of the cast. Stranger Things gains its unique lens and heart from these indispensible actors. If Winona Ryder decided not to return or in the unlikely event Charlie Stranger Things has emerged the premiere Heaton is punished by Netflix for cocaine piece of entertainment on the biggest streaming possession it could continue, but without service in the world. It’s large cast sprawled over Brown, Wolfhard, Matarazzo or McLaughlin it generations deals with the drama of the Upside- would be damaged beyond repair.

Down and the aliens that emerge from it with a deft hand, high production quality and a large dollop of eighties nostalgia.

The first season was a beautiful singular story strung together by the absence of Will. From there all the characters – his mother Joy, Sheriff Hopper, his friends, his brother, his friend’s sister and her boyfriend – all react from the inciting event. This is all compounded by the arrival of Eleven, but at the first season’s close Will is back and Eleven is gone. Things have reset as much as they ever could.

It’s also a perfect trap for sophomore slump, but creators The Duffer Bros sidestep this cleverly.

Will’s return was this big blob over the second season – after the initial curiosity of how people treated him it was like discovering a whole different character. In a lot of places he was Mike-lite, while Mike was off being Emo-Mike* As such each is given great plots that contrast missing Eleven. one another more and grant them independence outside from their group. The love triangle *Actor Finn Wolfhard’s words, not mine. between new addition Sadie Sink, Matarazzo and Eleven actress Millie Bobby Brown will have a McLaughlin lands well and keeps their youthful long and storied career filled with Emmys and innocence intact while inevitably having to have Oscars and so much more. Less than three years these child actors grow up. Wolfhard’s Mike is into this ultra-successful chapter of her career becoming a fine leader and it’s good storytelling and it is obvious she will be a lasting figure in to show his friendship with Will on screen to Hollywood. Her acting skills, her grace, her avoid retroactively damaging season one while candour during press and her warmth cannot Matarazzo’s Dustin unassumingly nurturing of a monster played to his strengths as an actor. be underappreciated.

It then makes sense to isolate this bolt of There’s a lot going on, and despite the longer lightning in an entirely separate sidestory, as runtimes it’s still all within eight episodes. she is the outcast with as little to do with the rest Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, maybe

Breaking Bad – this is what people initially meant when they spoke about event television.

A spectacle so grand and of such high quality it should be viewed on a cinema screen, and so sparse the audience will also be clamouring for more. Now it’s just an industry buzzword, but Stranger Things is the true soul of event television.

Finally a quick shoutout to Sean Astin, aka Samwise Gamgee of Lord of the Rings, for swinging by for a couple of episodes to add a brevity and joy to the Winona Ryder arc. While his death was awful but necessary, and his character was too kind for this fictional world, it was a character like Bob that makes Stranger Things work.

The cluster of older teenage characters has always been a little bit parallel to the overarching plot, only intersecting at the biggest moments of the series. The love triangle there of Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton and Joe Keery began as a stereotypical girl dating the wrong guy cliche and got about three quarters of the way to Kerry being dumped in favour of Heaton’s ‘good guy’.

This season completes the arc but goes so out of its way to make Keery’s character sweet, cool and relatable that it’s a shame Dyer’s character ends up with Heaton.

The folks behind this have their head on right.

Shawn Levy continues to excel as the go-to director from character-orientated creators and head writers The Duffer Bros. As they continue to deepen the lore by travelling to a Back to the Future II-esque cityscape and introduce more supernatural kids there’s still a guiding light to keep the audience seeing straight.

The villainous organisation’s headquarters has been exorcised from their town and everything points to the next season being the end of a trilogy, wherein perhaps Dyer, Kerry and Heaton graduate and a couple of kids – most likely Eleven and Mike – skip town to really kick down the door to this new universe. That’s the greatest challenge moving forward: to loose the sleepy town setting and still hold on to what makes Stranger Things this special show so many people have grown attached to.

And in the end, he doesn’t, which elevates Dyer as more than a girlfriend/sister auxiliary character. She’s often seen leading the investigation or racing towards danger while Heaton limps behind. Keery also takes on a mentoring role to Dustin and to a lesser degree all the kids and it saves his character from an easy cute. Aside from the kids, it will be most interesting to see where Kerry and Dyer land in If they accomplish this the show could go the next season. on forever. Let’s hope the budget can rise comparably to keep the cavalcade of megastars on their call sheets.

Mario has done a lot over the years from being a plumber in his 80’s roots to a time traveller, partier, professional golfer, kart racer and a doctor. The series has already found unique and successful ways to reinvent itself and Odyssey is the next progression in that tradition. Odyssey teams Mario with a ghost aptly named Cappy who must team up to stop Bowser who has stolen Princess Peach and Tiara the princess version of Cappy. It makes sense for the two to team up to travel throughout different kingdoms battling Bowser’s minions along the way and discovering moons that power the ship used for travel, also aptly named The Odyssey.

The game uses the intuitive Switch motion controls (as an option) that are particularly useful when playing with two players, you can also use the pro controller and handheld mode. While I only explored two player mode once as I selfishly wanted to devour this game as a single player experience, the second player is limited to cappy control with collecting coins and flicking the hat around the screen (exceptionally irritating when you play with your partner!)+ Speaking of control, using the power of Cappy you can possess almost any creature or character throughout the game and it is most times necessary to progress in the level and collect those all important moons. I enjoyed the variety and depth of characters you can possess, from previous villains like the goombas and bullet bill. What I did note as interesting is you cannot possess any of the local friendlies in the kingdoms. As much as I would have liked to, it seemed like out of respect for them you were not able to. This also speaks into the environments themselves, each kingdom is a mirror to our world with New Donk City replicating an american city (NYC!) the Sand Kingdom resembling Mexico, the Snow Kingdom looking very Iceland/Swedish, it is a very beautifully detailed depiction of these locations.

To be honest, I don’t have a huge history with Mario, I have dabbled in previous Mario games but this is the first one I have played to full completion (of the story mode anyway!)

I was a Sega gamer in my childhood with Sonic being my mascot of choice, and while

Alaisdair Leith looks at the hot new thing for the Nintendo Switch the next door neighbours did have Nintendo consoles it was only ever a very casual encounter with Mario.

I love the 2D games in all their glory and I played a little of Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Galaxy 2. My affection with this franchise comes from its roots and its 2D past iterations.

Playing as 3D Mario not only looked spectacular, it felt like a natural thing to explore these worlds and the controls are fluent. I also noticed no visible lag or latency when using both the pro controller and the joycons attached to the gamepad. Each world has many moons and I’m not talking 10 or 20 there are rumoured to be over 800 moons across the entire game. This is no small mission. When I reached the halfway point I ventured back to some previous worlds to explore around and found that things had changed and there were moons to discover that weren’t there before. The game effectively communicates that while yes we are trying to save the Princesses from Bowser, Mario is also exploring the world and the game rewards your bravery. Many times I thought I was going to fall off a cliff only to find a ledge with special coins or a moon hanging there that I never would have known about had I not knocked the joycon or ran up to it too quickly.

The life system is also radically different in this game, in that there is no “game over” as such, anytime you die you get a few coins deducted from your collection and there are a plethora of coins spread throughout each kingdom, it is virtually impossible to reach the game over stage. While this does seem like it could make the game easy, it does allow for free exploration as you are not concerned with how many times you die as you can always collect more coins and keep exploring. There are 11 kingdoms to explore and so many collectibles and hidden treasures to find and unlock, and if you have the Odyssey amiibo there are even more out there.

Graphically the game is incredibly beautiful, the detail in each world is astounding, from huge prehistoric creatures to the hum drum life of New Donk City and our first human characters in a Mario game. Some of my favourite places were Fossil Falls with some great waterfalls and rainbows, this is also echoed in the fizzy water area of the Seaside Kingdom. New Donky City was interesting as humans and a large city provide a new look and the not so subtle mexican influences in the Sandside Kingdom (those colourful poncho wearing skeletons are my spirit animals!) The cut scenes with the Odyssey flying off to a new location always excite me and the coordination with the HD rumble syncs in perfectly.

Many reviewers are comparing this game to Zelda BOTW and I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. Mario is a lot of fun, it has quirky characters with heart and a knack for exploration that is encouraged. The game’s main story mode is nowhere near as long as Zelda, and encourages players to rediscover the game to keep playing and collect some quirky costumes that unlock further areas throughout the kingdoms. The story is the same, Princess Peach has been stolen and you need to rescue here, it’s nothing new story wise but delivered in such a way that makes Mario feel fresh and new again. Hopefully this is just the start of Mario’s adventures with Cappy and it would be great to see this continue as its own separate franchise from the other Mario titles. Super Mario Odyssey is hands down the best Mario game I have ever played, its constant love and throwbacks to the 2D games are plentiful and with some new tricks up their sleeve, Nintendo have once again proven why they are the best in the industry delivering hit after hit.

Article by Matt Russell

A HISTORY OF

It’s difficult to believe nowadays that Sonic the Hedgehog was ever a major rival to Mario as the video game world’s most recognisable character, and yet for a brief time in the 90s, it was as though the future had arrived in hedgehog form.

With his sleek blue looks, attitude and bright red shoes, Sonic’s arrival on the scene suddenly made Nintendo’s mustachioed plumber with a penchant for mushrooms, only the bad kind. For kids in the 90’s, it was a revelation. People went crazy for Sonic straight out of the gates. His first game, Sonic the Hedgehog, debuted on the Mega Drive in 1991 and became one of the biggest selling games of all time. It’s still in the top 20 best-selling games of all time twenty-five years later. That’s impressive.

A FLYING START In 1990, Sega and Nintendo’s rivalry was reaching its peak. Realising that it didn’t have a strong mascot character to compete with Nintendo’s Mario, Sega gave the order to its in house development team to create a mascot. After working through several designs, including, at one point, a rabbit that threw rocks at enemies, Sonic was eventually conceived and made his debut on the Mega Drive in a whirl of sudden success. Sonic the Hedgehog was a bright, colourful and fast platformer that told the story of Sonic trying to reclaim the stolen Chaos Emeralds and free his animal buddies from the machinations of evil genius, Dr Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik. Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic CD and Sonic 3 all followed in quick succession and though none of the sequels sold quite as well as the original game they were all wildly successful and fuelled school arguments over whether Nintendo or Sega were better for years to come.Widow and he plays Thor in that cartoon series, and so many

others. Actually, Infamous Second Sons, one of the other video games I talked about, he played Reggie, one of the other leads in the game.

Though Sonic and Robotnik were immediately established as the core of any Sonic game, Sonic 2 saw the debut of a new character: Miles “Tails” Prower, a two tailed fox who could fly and would either be controlled by a second player or just follow along behind Sonic and die repeatedly every time an underwater level came up. It was the first of many characters to be introduced in subsequent games. Knuckles the Echidna, a nemesis and eventual friend of Sonic was introduced in Sonic 3 and played a leading role in Sonic and Knuckles.

Many others followed: Amy Rose, Metal Sonic, Shadow the Hedgehog. Today, the Sonic universe is made up of a bewildering number of characters and, if you really care to delve into it, a surprisingly complex storyline told over a huge number of games. The core games spawned spin-offs in multiple genres: Sonic Spinball was a pinball game.

Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine was a puzzle game and also a great potential name for a food truck. If you go delving into Sonic’s back catalogue, you are guaranteed to find things you didn’t know existed.

The early games on the Mega Drive still look great. They’re colourful, they have great music and there’s a lot of interesting things going on in them. Sonic 3 in particular makes great use of animations and transitions between stages to tell a story. The gameplay itself can be a little difficult to adjust to, something that has led certain corners of the internet to question whether Sonic games were ever really good or whether the fondness for them is just misplaced nostalgia.

is just misplaced nostalgia. The answer is, of course they were good. No, they don’t play as perfectly as Mario games from the same era, but compared to the mountains of by-the-numbers platform games that were being churned out in the early 90’s, the Sonic games were great.

answer to games like Mario 64. It was received extremely well at the time but contemporary reviews are far more scathing of its poor camera management and frustrating difficulty. The game was followed up with an improved sequel in Sonic Adventure 2 but by then, no one was buying the Dreamcast anymore. It was the beginning of a long The problem with Sonic’s early games is that, at slide downhill for Sonic. No more would he be first glance, the game mechanics and level design regarded as the only real rival to Mario. Instead, as seem to be working cross purposes. Sonic can the Dreamcast slowly failed, he became a symbol move at a blisteringly fast pace and yet the levels of Sega’s failing fortunes. do everything they can to stop you reaching and staying at top speed. Throughout most levels, you’re continually running into hidden springs that launch you into enemies and spikes or send you skidding back in the opposite direction. This level design makes sense from Dr Robotnik’s point There’s a fairly understandable misconception that of view, but doesn’t make for fun times to be Sonic. after Sega’s collapse as a console maker, Sonic spent And yet when you do get going on a good run, the quite a few lost years standing outside Sega HQ games feel great. Travelling at top speed as Sonic, asking for spare change, but he’s never really gone just managing to avoid obstacles as they come away from the video game scene. His first post Sega looming out of nowhere at you, is a wonderful title was Sonic Advance for the Gameboy Advance, experience to the point where you just don’t want released in the same year as his final appearance to stop moving until something forces you to. on the Dreamcast. That Sonic was appearing on

The Post Sega Years

Out of Control As the console generations moved into the 32-bit era, things started to take a downward turn for Sega. Sonic made some fairly obscure appearances on the ill-fated Saturn (and you’ll notice that all of Sega’s consoles after the Mega Drive could very well have “ill-fated” at the start of their names) before coming back in a big way on the Dreamcast with Sonic Adventure. The Dreamcast was a great console that nobody bought because at this point, Sega had made too many mistakes with or without Sonic. Sonic Adventure was a full 3D game in

a Nintendo console was something that had been utterly unthinkable just a few years before. The Sega kids who’d always been able to count on Sonic in the Sega vs Nintendo argument were fuming, or at least would have been if they weren’t busy playing their shiny new Playstation 2s and Xboxes by now. Sonic Advance is a surprisingly solid Sonic game. It’s not as colourful as its original Mega Drive counterparts but it retains all of the fun and imagination. It spawned two sequels and gave Sonic enough success on Nintendo’s handhelds to appear on Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventures on the Nintendo DS, both of which made interesting use of the DS’s split screen but for the first time ever, overdid it with Sonic’s speed.

Over on the home consoles, Sonic wasn’t doing nearly as well. Here, 2D platforming had been mostly abandoned in favour of Sonic Adventure’s full 3D. There were numerous attempts to relaunch and reboot the series including Shadow the Hedgehog, a gritty spin-off featuring a gun wielding, motorcycle riding hedgehog blasting his way through levels. It was not good. The most notable reboot was Sonic the Hedgehog for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. There was an impressive amount of marketing leading up to this title, a promise that Sonic was back to his prime. With its extravagant CG cut scenes it still looks like it costs millions of dollars but on release it was almost universally panned and a spectacular failure. It was full of bugs, long load times and an oddly complicated plot. If Sonic had hit a low before, Sonic the Hedgehog sank him even lower. Surprisingly, even more games followed across all consoles and though these have their fans, the less said about them, the better. Through all this, there were still occasional glimpses of the old Sonic, most notably in Sonic 4 parts 1 and 2 which were attempts to take Sonic back to his roots. Unfortunately, Sonic was all but exiled from mainstream gaming culture by now and even these weren’t well received.

The Return It wasn’t until this year’s Sonic Mania that Sonic finally got a break. A loving throwback to Sonic’s 16-bit days with a perfect mix of new stuff and nostalgia, Sonic Mania was made by fans who knew exactly what made Sonic fun in the first place. For the first time in a decade, a Sonic game gained widespread acclaim and made people remember exactly why Sonic had been so popular.

Coming up next is Sonic Forces which looks to be attempting to reinvigorate the 3D incarnation of Sonic with healthy doses of 2D platforming. It looks fast, colourful and exciting, but time will tell where in the Sonic pantheon it falls.

There’s no getting around the fact that Sonic is nowhere near as popular as he once was. He will never really be a rival to Mario again. But the fact that Sonic has somehow endured is a testament to just how iconic the character is and somehow remains. There are still an astonishing number of hardcore Sonic fans out there and the games always sell well enough to continue being published, no matter how the critical reception is. At this point he’s had a lot more misses than hits but the best thing about Sonic is that there’s always a new game around the corner and it always has the potential to be great. Sonic is a survivor and Sega’s stubborn refusal to let him go means he’s earned his spot alongside Pacman and Mario as an icon of the industry.

Alaisdair Leith on the Sega mascot’s next adventure When I first started playing Sonic Forces I was extremely excited after the perfection of Sonic Mania to have another game starring the blue hedgehog again on my shiny new Nintendo Switch. This time converting the Sonic to 3D and from the maker of Colours and Generations (2 of my favourite new Sonic games) the anticipation level was high. Then the game started, Sonic got captured and I was forced to make a customer character that would be the main focus of the game moving forward. I was so engraged at the sub par graphics and awful designs of the custom characters, I just wanted to play Sonic, that’s why I bought this game. After I got through the first customer character level and Sonic was rescued I was finally able to play as my favourite blue hedgehog again and this is mixed up throughout the rest of the game with other side characters like Shadow.

and Casino Zone have a dark tone and noticeably destroyed by Eggman’s goons. The new levels are very apolcalyptic and look amazing on both handheld and docked mode on the Nintendo Switch. The controls are extremely responsive and I only had one point where I noticed a lag usig my pro controller and missed a few jumps. It was only at one point during the game and once I switched (ha!) to handheld mode the problem went away.

Apart from this the game runs smoothly.

Celebrating Sonic’s 25th year of existence with two games is how I wanted to spend 2017 and I am so glad that we have two iterations of Sonic to spend time with. Sonic Team has done an outstanding job of delivering fan service as well as propelling the series forward. In an era which Sega could easily make a Sonic Adventure 3 (seriously though how great would that be!) instead they have chosen to make a new game and continually improve the The game revolves around Sonic team, in a big to series and the characters of Sonic forward. stop Eggman (Dr Robotnik!) who has recruited all of Sonic’s baddest foes including Chaos, Metal Overall Sonic Forces is a game that fans will love, Sonic, Shadow and Zavok. Together the team can much time and care has been given to deliver both succesfully take down Sonic and pose a real threat Sonic’s and the look spectacular on the Sega’s new to the blue hedgehog and his team of heroes. When engine Hedgehog 2 delivering crisp and crystal Eggman rips through the world corrupting various clear graphics with perfectly timed controls. The levels and worlds, you must play as Sonic (modern blend between pop music and game soundtrack or classic) as well as your custom avatar that after I was superb, it is worth noting that the London got over my initial hatred, I grew to enjoy.

Symphony Orchestra were brought in to play some of the music in levels and the quality shows in Gameplay wise modern sonic has a third person these sequences. Sonic Forces delivers the perfect view with jumping and aiming for beating fanfare experience and helps move the series enemies, while classic Sonic goes side scrolling forward, in its entirety and after getting over the with beautiful graphics with a noticeable upgrade shock of the custom character implementation, from Sonic Mania. The levels are beautifully the game comes into its own and delivers another detailed with classic levels like Green Hill Zones great Sonic title.

Words by Alaisdair Leith

The games protagonist Sebastian Castellanos is severely battered and still shell shocked from the events of the first game. We meet up with him again in a bar drowning his sorrows on a bar when he is approached by Juli Kidman and her goons inform the obviously grieving man that his thought to be dead daughter Lily is still alive and they need his help to rescue her and their trapped agents in their Matrix/Avatar like system called STEM. Castellanos is thrust into this world with high emotional stakes that make this effort stand out from the previous installment, with a rather bland mix of supporting characters, this allows the weird and surprisingly twisted environment to stand out as a character in its own right and elevate both the environment and the gameplay.

portals to other places through mirrors, a mysterious black cat who stays in your safehouse gives you an weird oozing slime that helps you upgrade your abilities, a nurse who helps the upgrade through a chair restraint and headcap, you get the feeling any any point the game can change the rules and flip everything around on you, and it does. While you are encouraged to explore, the claustrophobic and extremely dark hallways tease either an enemy or some sweet loot hiding in the corner, it always provides a jump scare and adds to tone of the game.

I havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been this disturbed by a game since the first Outlast game and while it terrifies me, I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to get stuck back in for the + mode (not to mention all the dazzling t-shirts you can mod your character with when you jump back in!)

The first half of the game is open world, you are given full ability to explore every house, every blade of grass for items to customise your weapons (and trust me, you will want to do this!) That being said while exploration is a lot of fun, it is also exceedingly dangerous. The Lost (the horrible zombie like creatures) roam the streets, hide in houses and generally are just lurking around most corners waiting for you to walk noisily and charge attack you. This game will build your confidence up in exploration mode only to have a massive Lost creature dragging a fallen soldier behind him, hear you inside a house, barge in and attack you and then having to repeat the whole thing again to find there wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t anything interesting inside the house anyway. It sounds annoying but it works, it offers up something different in this game and it is the part the I enjoyed the most.

After the game gets off to a slow start the action and gore increases as it thrusts toward its gory and glorifying finish. The change of pace really helped me stick with the game as it offered a point of difference with the first couple of chapters.

Enemies and boss battles along with a depleting amount of ammo and resources force you into full on horror game survival mode and are a great lesson in patience and persistence. This mixed in with the incredible sounds and hauntingly chilling music combine with the heart stopping, adrenaline filled action sequences that make this game a solid survival horror entry and one of my favourite games of this year.

The Evil Within 2 delivers a surprisingly addictive game that incorporates the best horror elements of a game with an engaging story and terrifying boss battles that will haunt you long after you have logged off (I even came face to face with the scariest one at Fright Night at Movie World this year! They have a whole freaking precinct full of them!) Making the opening chapters open world and allowing exploration and a change of pace halfway through the game was a massive win for the series as it takes us through different paces like a good horror movie does. The graphical upgrade from the last game is astounding and the blood and gore effects on both victims and monsters were everything that the audience for this game wants.

That being said ammo is scarce in this game, and usually scarce ammo games really just piss me right off, yet for some reason this game made it acceptable.

Other items like the extremely useful handaxe will be an item that will save your life. The best move to use is decapitation which delivers a swift death to the Lost if you can manage to do it quickly. Running into a group of enemies is probably the worst thing you can do in this game, in other similar titles you can easily shoot or melee your way out, not in this one. I quickly learned that distraction and sneaking is the best way to push forward, particularly in chapter 3 when you have no other choice but to do The Evil Within 2 is available now on PS4, Xbox so. It can be a grueling and painful process but the One and PC. If you are on the Gold Coast, Warner rewards and satisfaction when you do are worth it. Bros. Movie World has a Evil Within 2 precinct at their Fright Nights event and is well worth checking The world remains weird and screwed up with out! Find out more at novastreamnetwork.com

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