The Rage:Carrie 2 (1999) Review

The Rage: Carrie 2 is an unexpected sequel to say the least considering that the original story never had a continuation.

The film had originally began as a completely independent film but after the studio noticed the similarities to the 1976 film it lead to it being redeveloped as a sequel with returning actress Amy Irving reprising her role as Sue Snell.

In the movie the new lead is named Rachel and she is seeking out revenge on a group of School Jocks whose cruel game of sleeping with the most girls lead to the suicide of her best friend.

The casting for the movie is definitely one its highlights the entire cast is a lot of fun on screen and I think the choice of taking this movie much less seriously than the original definitely works in its favour.

Our lead actress Emily Bergl is fantastic in her performance, she is really good at showing emotion and realism in her role. She manages to handle the female taking revenge on men much better than I have seen in other similar films of that genre.

Emily Bergl having an intense interaction with Amy Irving (left) in a scene from the film ‘The Rage: Carrie 2’, 1999. (Photo by United Artists/Getty Images)

The return of Sue Snell was a nice touch and I think making her the school psychiatrist was a really good choice as it makes sense since she obviously would have had psychiatric help herself due to her nightmares after the events of the 1976 prom.

Another great detail added to this movie was that the telekinesis Gene that came from the father of both Carrie and Rachel, the mention of Ralph White was appreciated because it made it more believable that both girls could display the same powers.

One thing I really didn’t enjoy though was the weird black and white edits that were thrown in during occasional moments when Rachel was using her Telekinesis, I first thought that maybe this was meant to represent what she sees when using the power but this theory soon didn’t make any sense because in other moments the powers were used without the Black and White filters.

I also thought it was a bit cheap to make the mother crazy, this only really showed even more similarities between the two movies.

When you think about it they are almost the exact same film, a female with telekinetic powers and a crazy mother uses her abilities to take revenge on her high school bullies..

There is a love interest in this movie who isn’t encouraged to pursue Rachel, this is Jesse who is played by Jason Landon. Jesse wasn’t a particularly memorable character but I did enjoy seeing someone who was actually decent as person in one of these movies.

Yes the first movie did have the Gym teacher who showed care for Carrie but the difference with Jesse is that he actually thought highly of Rachel because of her personality and did genuinely have a romantic connection with her.

My biggest issue with the film is actually something that really bugged me and that was Rachel. It wasn’t her character that bothered me, she came across as fairly normal and actually quite cool which begs the question why would she be bullied or even so despised in the film.

Nothing about her character gives any reason what so ever why she would be targeted and again I have to compare with the 1976 film. Carrie White was odd and shy, she didn’t have a clue about the real world and came across as weird it made sense why she was bullied, it still wasn’t right for her to be tormented and cruelly bullied but you could in a way understand why she was, but with Rachel its just a bit dumb and they should have done something with her character to make this aspect of the film more realistic.

The Rage: Carrie 2 left me surprised because honestly I dreaded watching this and I thought it would awful but you know what its actually pretty decent It does not hold handle to the original but if you can look past how unnecessary it was to make this, it is quite a fun time and not once was I bored, the actors all do a great job and again this is taken much less seriously making for a decent popcorn flick to watch with friends just for the heck of it.

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Metroid Prime (2002) Review

Metroid Prime is the first game in the prime series, these games follow an action adventure style with a focus on exploration and puzzle solving which is a completely different style to the previous games in the series. It was developed Retro Studios for the Nintendo Gamecube and was released in 2002, the game was also re-released in the Metroid Prime Trilogy for the Nintendo Wii, In this review I am focusing on the original GameCube version of the game so keep that in mind.

After escaping Zebes in the Original Metroid, Samus recieves a distress signal from to travel to the Planet Tallon IV to prevent Meta Ridley and the Space Pirates from exploting the planets core and stealing its phazon energy, Samus lands her ship directly in planets center in a forested area and prepares herself for her very first 3D mission.

Right from the get go the game looks gorgeous and it has a large variety of different areas, my favourite was the forest but you also have to deal with ice and snow, lava, underground caverns, mines and toxic substances, all of the areas of the game are fantastically designed and I have no issue with graphics or visuals.

You will spend the majority of this game shooting enemies and as you explore you will discover new weapons, the game is very well designed with the different weapons needing to swapped regularly in order to damage different types of enemies, so many games will give you loads of weapons but only one will really be needed, in Metroid Prime however you need all of them to survive and the final boss of the game requires you to use each of them.

You can also find many upgrades to your armor most of these are series staples but the final phazon suit upgrade is new, it allows you to walk through the toxic substance without taking damage, the gravity suit also makes a return allowing Samus to double jump.

Of course the morph ball makes a return and while there isnt any new power-ups for it, it is very satisfying to use and once you unlock the spider ball upgrade it makes exploration a lot easier and at times a little bit quicker.

What is new is the ability to use half pipes to launch your morph ball to high ledges, this takes a while to get the hang of and I feel it could have been made a lot less stressful if they took out the need to time you boosts.

For the first time in the series Samus is able to upgrade her Visor to deal with different environments, the scan allows her to scan enemies and items to collect information and interact with the environments, the thermal visor allows her to see heat in the dark and the x-ray helps her to find secrets hidden within the landscapes such as walls that she can destroyed or ice she can melt.

The boss fights are really memorable but I do feel they drag out a bit too long, some of these fights can take up to 20 minutes and all of them quite difficult, it doesnt help that you still need to discover save stations to get a checkpoint, I feel that auto saves in some areas would have been a better choice, for example half way through the game you get to the mines and there is a section where you have to take out various difficult difficult space pirates and solve puzzles to get to through the areas, after getting so far you have had your health drained and instead of giving you a chance to save and heal the game just throws you into awkward boss battle that takes off large amounts of your health, at the same time more space pirates turn up making this the only part of the game that I felt was badly designed.

Another really annoying issue with the boss fights is that you have hold down the controller buttons in order to do powerful charge shots and missiles, your hands really start to ache after 30 minutes or so fighting the same boss and while this may come across as nitpicking it really does get annoying when you are really getting into the game and you have to stop playing for a while just so that you rest your fingers.

As per usual the soundtrack for Metroid Prime is as great as you would expect it to be, these games have always had immersive music that fits the lonely atmosphere of the games surroundings perfectly, the music is often creepy and chilling, it makes the player feel uneasy and on the edge of their seat not knowing whats lurking in the darkness and this is no exception its a really good soundtrack and while I still prefer the music from Super Metroid even though most of that music is remixed here this is still one of better Metroid soundtracks available.

I may have complained a little bit about this one but I did really enjoy my experience with Metroid Prime, for the first game in 3D the developers did a remarkable job in making it feel similar to its predecessors, this may be the hardest Metroid game I have played yet and while I do enjoy a challenge a few extra save stations would have been nice especially before major boss battles. I am very excited to eventually get around to playing Metroid Prime 2 but for now I will leave the series here, giving It’s first 3D game a score of 8.4/10

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Book Review: The Hunger Games – Catching Fire

Only two years late on this one, here is my review of the first book

https://ragglefragglereviews.com/2018/01/23/book-review-the-hunger-games-by-suzanne-collins/

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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy, it was written by author Suzanne Collins and was released in 2009.

After successfully winning the 74th Hunger Games Peeta and Katniss return home to District 12 where every seems back to normal until she recieves a surprise visit from President Snow who was unimpressed with Katniss actions against the capitol and now wants her to convince the districts that it was out of love for Peeta.

Without spoiling too much of the plot I will say that I vastly enjoyed this book more than the first, there is a lot of intense and emotional moments in this story and I would argue that this is the book that really shows how messed up the Hunger Games truly is and how sinister and psychotic behaviour is the source of its creation.

There are a lot of deaths in this book that definitely did not need to happen but were necessary to show the immense power the capital has over the districts of Panem. In the first book it didn’t really show an emotional and human side to the other competitors but in this story you really feel for everyone that is involved and are left not only rooting for Katniss and Peeta. There is also a look into past hunger games which helps show us how the characters such as Hamish survived in previous games.

Overall this is an emotional book that is at times scary and even gruesome but you really feel sorry for the characters almost as if you are watching the games yourself, I do wish that I never waited so long to read this one but the third and final book I am going to finish at some point this year so look forward to that.

I hope you enjoyed this review of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009) Review

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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the second game in the Uncharted video game series. It was developed by Naughty Dog and was published by Sony for the Playstation 3.

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Set two years after the events of Drakes Fortune, Uncharted 2 begins with Nathan Drake brutally injured on a train carriage that is hanging over an icy cliff.

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After the beginning level of the game, a flash back explains the main plot and this is where things start to get really interesting.

In the flashback Drake is visited by an old friend and former treasure hunter Harry Flynn along with his Girlfriend Chloe Frazer.

Drake and Flynn break into a museum to steal a Mongolian oil lamp that once belonged to Marco Polo, they find a map inside of the lamp that illuminates a message explaining that a ship was shipwrecked in Borneo that was carrying a large sapphire called a Cintimani Stone. Unfortunately Flynn turns on drake and gets Drake arrested, three months later Drake is bailed out of prison by Sully and an adventure to find the Cintimani Stone begins.

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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is an Action-Adventure game just like its predecessor however this one is a little more ambitious and in my opinion a lot better. You will still be climbing buildings and traversing your way through dangerous environments using clever thinking and stealth to survive and not fall to your death.

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What I really loved about the game-play here is how much the environment changed, it was a huge upgrade to the first game that stuck to the same setting. The exploration side of the game never got boring and it always kept me eager to explore, the gun play was all very similar to the last game, there were a few new weapon types available and a variety of new enemies to fight some were much tougher than others. The puzzles here were very challenging and really made me have to scratch my head at times and so they should in a game like this.

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The game looks absolutely gorgeous, it takes place in various locations and all of them are beautiful, I particularly love how the colours in the city really pop off the screen, the details that the designers put into the layout and design of the city gives it plenty of personality, I love the design of the entire game but the city is my favourite.

Another breathtaking soundtrack by Greg Edmonson accompanies the gameplay, every track fits the environment and atmosphere of the game perfectly.

Uncharted 2: Amongst Thieves is an outstanding game which is often called the best game in the Uncharted series by fans, so far this is best one I have played and I honestly could not find a single thing I did not like about the game, it kept me invested and had a great cast of characters. The story was fantastic and would make a great film one day if they ever made an adaptation. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is a video game adventure of a lifetime that you will not want to miss 10/10

I hope you enjoyed this review of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

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Dracula’s Daughter (1936) Review

Before reading this review use the link below to check out my review of Dracula from 1931

https://ragglefragglereviews.com/2017/10/07/dracula-1931-review/

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As a sequel to one of the greatest  horror classics of all time its a very difficult task to try and replicate the influential masterpiece of the 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi. This film does not have Lugosi to give his chilling performance so the new vampire played by Gloria Holden had to really try and wow audiences.

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Gloria Hoden pictured here next to co star Irving Pichel was a beauty on the screen and gives a wonderful performance by portraying a character that does not want to be a monster but is still driven to hurt and kill others in order to get her fix of human blood.

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The film begins where the last movie ended, Van-Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) had just slain Count Dracula but he is unfortunately captured by two policeman who arrest him and take him to Scotland Yard for questioning

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While Van-Helsing is in custody the Countess Marya Zaleska steals her fathers body and burns it in the hope of turning her into a mortal as she is desperate to remove her cravings for blood and live free of the curse of being a vampire.

The movie is tragic and very sad, you really feel sorrow for the Countess and are left on the edge of your seat praying that Van-Helsing can prove that Vampires exist and is able to save himself from the gallows or a sanitarium. Van-Helsing calls for Dr Garth (Otto Kruger) a Psychiatrist and one of his ex-students for help defending his sanity.

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Draculas Daughter does not have the same impact as the original film but I wouldn’t say its only because of a lack of Bela Lugosi but also because both of the films have a different atmosphere and pacing, the original film was creepy and slow but this one is faster paced and at times rather comical, I would argue that Dracula (1931) was scarier but that Dracula’s Daughter is more entertaining due to it packing more of a punch and is a lot more lively

I hope you enjoyed this review of Dracula’s Daughter (1936)

Happy Halloween 2019

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Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015) Review

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Rise of the Tomb Raider is the sequel to the 2013 Tomb Raider game, just like its predecessor Rise of the Tomb Raider was developed by Crystal Dynamics and it was published by Square Enix who are most famous for the Final Fantasy Series.

Four years ago I reviewed the 2013 Tomb Raider game, you can check out that review here

https://ragglefragglereviews.com/2014/07/07/tomb-raider-2013-pc-360ps3-review/

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The game takes place one year after the events of the first game, Lara is suffering from PTSD due to the trauma she suffered while on he last adventure. In order to seek answers to help explain the supernatural events that happened on the island she decides to follow her late father Richards research in order to find a lost city called Kitezh, according to her fathers widow Ana, Richard Crofts obsession with the lost city drove him to madness and suicide and she try’s to prevent Lara from going on the mission but Lara ultimately decides to go anyway in order to finish what her father could not.

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Rise of the Tomb Raider is an Action- Adventure game which uses stealth and combat as major elements to its game-play, finding the tombs and discovering the secrets of the lost city are only a small part of the game, there are a lot of enemies who want Lara dead so players need to use quick thinking and good reactions to survive.

maxresdefaultLara has a huge arsenal of weapons she can use including a bow and arrow, pistols, a shotgun, incendiary grenades and many more.

Lara can stop at various campfires throughout the game in order to gain new skills and in order to level up her equipment, the camp fires can also be used to fast travel between various locations in the game.

baba-yaga-45In a similar manner to the first game the most useful weapon is the bow and arrow which can be used for multiple uses including taking out your enemies, firing various types of arrows which can be modified for use with various element including but not limited too poison and fire. Lara can also shoot arrows tied to rope in order to bring down obstacles and too create rope bridges.

2B5GwjWith all the traversing, sneaking and combat you need to do in the game, its really important that it controls well and I can say that Rise of the Tomb Raider has fluent controls which interact with the player and the environments perfectly, once or twice when jumping between ledges I would fall to my death and it did seem a bit unfair although this hardly ever happened.

The Soundtrack was composed by Bobby Tahouri and is outstanding, in my last review I stated that the soundtrack sounded like it was composed by John Williams and I can say the same here, it has emotional and slower tracks for the more serious parts of the game and faster more intense tracks for the more adventurous segments of the game and overall it is fantastic.

Rise-of-the-Tomb-Raider-Preview-Screenshot-31Rise of the Tomb Raider is an amazing game, I loved the first game but I enjoyed this more as it had a more in depth look at Lara and her fathers relationship before he passed away and I found the adventure as a whole to be more thrilling, it has a wonderful soundtrack, crisp and fantastic visuals and fluent controls, Rise of the Tomb Raider is one excellent expedition. 9.7/10

I hope you enjoyed this review of Rise of the Tomb Raider if you respect my opinion I will respect yours.

With Halloween on the way this will be the last non horror related review of the month and through out October we will be kicking off the Halloween reviews with this years theme Alien movies.

If you would like to help support the website please use the donation button at the top of the page, your donations will help to improve the website by allowing me to afford products to review and to be able to execute any costly updates and changes, any amount in donations are welcome.

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Super Mario Bros 2 (NES) Review

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Super Mario Bros 2 is a really strange game, to be honest the version of the game released outside of Japan isn’t even the real version of the game, the original sequel was deemed to difficult for both the Americans and the Europeans, so instead of giving us the game that was similar to the first Super Mario Bros Nintendo decided that they would reskin a game called Doki Doki Panic to now involve Mario character for release outside of Japan and the rest is history.

maxresdefaultThe first thing players noticed in this game was the character select screen,  now not only can you play as Mario and Luigi but you can also play as a Toad or Princess Peach.

Each character has unique characteristics.

Mario is a great all round character with good strength, jump height and speed, Luigi is a little weaker and slower than Mario but has the best Jump height in the game, Toad has the best strength and speed in the game but is not very good at jumping  and finally the Princess has low strength and speed along with a mediocre jump however she can float in the air which makes up for her lower stats, the Princess is my favourite character to play as.

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Due to this being a reskin of another game Mario 2 changes the way you play the game compared to other titles in the series, now you cant jump on enemies to kill them instead you need to pull up vegetables, blocks or enemies and hurl them at the bad guys.

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At the end of each stage you now have to fight a sub boss, some of these are really fun to fight and some will catch you off guard such as the exit door which comes to life and tries to defeat you although most of these sub bosses are Birdos who appear in almost every stage.

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At the end of each stage you will have a chance to use a slot machine to win 1-ups, you can only use coins found in levels on the slots machine, you find these coins in bonus doors that you can open when you find a magic potion and throw it on the ground.

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Visually this is the best looking Mario game on the Nintendo Entertainment System, while all of Mario’s NES era games have smooth graphics with great animations Mario 2 definitely has the most interesting enemy and world designs, this is mostly due to the game taking place in a brand new area with different and unusual landscapes.

The soundtrack is definitely better than the first Mario game although its still lacking in tracks and often loops the same music.

Super Mario Bros 2 is a pretty good game, I wouldn’t say its one of the best games in the series although it is still worth giving it a go if you get the chance, it controls great, has fantastic visuals and a brand new story and location however in my opinion the soundtrack and slow game play holds it back a bit, as I previously stated this is only a reskin of Doki Doki Panic with not many changes at all so consider this a review of both games and due to this I would personally recommend you play one over the other Mario 2 is slightly more polished and a little easier so I would choose that one although if you want the intended experience play Doki Doki Panic, either way no matter which version you choose they are both fun games which I can happily give a fair 7.4/10

I hope you enjoyed this review of Super Mario 2 for the NES

Click the following Link to be directed to my review of Super Mario Bros for the NES https://ragglefragglereviews.com/2012/11/22/super-mario-bros-nes-review/

Click the following Link to be directed to my review of Super Mario Bros 3 for the NES https://ragglefragglereviews.com/2012/09/13/super-mario-bros-3-nes-review/

I wrote both of these back in 2012 when I hadn’t long started writing so please go easy on them 🙂

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Splatoon 2 (Nintendo Switch) Review

Is Splatoon 2 a good reason too buy a Switch?

splatoon-2-artIt’s been over two years since the release of the original Splatoon so it was no surprise when the sequel was announced during the Switch reveal earlier this year and even though this review is over a month late due to all the new content in Splatoon 2 I am finally ready to talk about this much anticipated game.

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The single player story mode hasn’t changed much since the first game but there are a few small differences, first of all you are now playing as Agent 4 and not Agent 3 from the first game, the plot still revolves around rescuing the great zapfish from an unknown threat, there are five areas which each hold multiple stages and a boss fight, apart from using some of the newer weapons which I will get into later the game play hasn’t changed a lot the objective is to rescue the zapfish by getting from point A to point B, each stage has a different obstacle for example some levels require the player to fill up sponge platforms with ink in order too increase the platforms size, another obstacle requires the player too activate buttons in order to change and rearrange some platforms in order to reach the goal.

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The Boss fights follow a similar design as before however they still offer a fresh experience for players returning to the series. my favourite of these new bosses is the Octo Oven a giant toaster which requires the player to avoid its nasty attacks until the bread pops out of its oven doors allowing the player to maneuver their way to the top of the boss and hit its weak point.

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Turf War is the main mode in Splatoon 2, just like in the first game players will team up with other players online, each player is separated into two teams and the goal is too ink as much turf as possible, the team that inks the most turf by the end of the game wins.

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All of the old weapon types return for Splatoon 2 so you can still play with the splattershot, splat roller and the inkbrush however many new weapon types have been added to the series two of my favourite new editions include the splat dualies which is similar to the original splattershot but the player holds 2 guns (1 in each hand) and they hold half the amount of ink, another fave of mine is the splatbrella an umbrella weapon which can fire a shotgun blast while also protecting the player from enemy fire in a similar manner to the movie Kingsman a Secret Service.

Splatoon2-SplatZones-1024x576 Ranked Battle is back and its more intense than ever, there are three modes available the first is splat zones where teams must go up against each other to try and splat certain areas of the map and then keep that area inked in their colour in order to win the game, next up is tower control where players must ride a moving tower into enemy territory to reach the goal and finally there is the mode I suck at the most rain maker, the rain maker is a special powerful weapon which players must carry into the enemy base without being splated by the opposing team.

DGPBIXCUAAAikEy_thumbOnce you reach rank B minus you can try your hand at league battles, a league battle is 2 hours long and they allow competitive players to battle it out in ranked battle modes without being able to lose their level

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A brand new mode introduced to the series, salmon run is a horde survival mode where players must destroy hordes of enemy AI and bosses in order to gain experience points and golden eggs, the golden eggs must be picked up and dropped off at the collection point and if all players are dead in the game then salmon run is over, salmon run is awesome and by far the best part of the game but unfortunately its only available during certain times of the year.

Whats to be said other than Splatoon 2 is amazing and is a great reason to buy a Nintendo Switch, my complaints from the first game still stand I wish you could choose maps and game modes instead of them being swapped out during 2 hour time slots, the amiibo support here really sucks compared to the first game as it only allows you to save another players gear to the amiibo for a quick costume and weapon swap between games and mini games such as squid jump have been removed completely,  however putting this aside the graphics and music are as fresh as ever and the addition of salmon run is enough for me to rate this game a little bit higher by giving it an off the hook 9.5/10

I hope you enjoyed my review of Splatoon 2

By Padawan

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