The Mandalorian: Spoiler-Free Season 1 Review

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This is a mostly spoiler-free review of The Mandalorian Season 1, which is now streaming in its entirety on Disney+. (The only spoiler is the existence of Baby Yoda, which, unless you’ve been living without internet access for the past two months, is pretty unavoidable at this point.) Read our spoiler-filled reviews for every episode of The Mandalorian below.

• The Mandalorian Episode 1 Review
• The Mandalorian Episode 2 Review

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Watchmen Full Season Review

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This is a spoiler-free review of Season 1 of HBO's Watchmen, which we named IGN's best TV series of the year for 2019. For our spoiler-filled reactions, check out our Watchmen finale review and ending explained.

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ landmark 1986-87 comic has seen numerous adaptations — much to the chagrin of Moore, who claims to have been swindled out of the rights by DC — from a 2009 Zack Snyder film, to a 2012 line of prequel comics, to the recently concluded Doomsday Clock, which sees the Watchmen characters interact with the likes of Batman and Superman. None came anywhere close to the original’s prowess, because none seemed to capture the lightning that was its in-your-face politics, told through a tongue-in-cheek deconstruction of the era’s superhero genre. None, that is, until HBO’s nine-part TV series from Lost and The Leftovers showrunner Damon Lindelof.

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My Hero Academia Season 4, Episode 11 Review

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This review contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Season 4, episode 11 (episode 74 overall), titled "Lemillion." See where we left off with our review of MHA Season 4, episode 10.

With a genuinely chilling piece of backing music that sounds like it was ripped straight out of a Tom Waits song, Season 4, episode 11, “Lemillion,” opens on a gothic note, with close-up after close-up obscuring its dark location and creating a rather distressing atmosphere that speaks to Overhaul’s tone and personality. The title of the episode, the name of UA’s most powerful student, makes a very big promise that,  for the most part, “Lemillion” does indeed deliver on. Or, at least, the character himself does.

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The Mandalorian: Episode 8 Review

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This review contains spoilers for The Mandalorian episode 8, "Redemption," which is the Season 1 finale, and light spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. To refresh your memory of where we left off, check out our Mandalorian episode 7 review, and the unexpected way The Mandalorian connects with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

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AOC Agon AG251FZ2 Gaming Monitor Review

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If you’re an extremely skilled, competitive gamer, buying a monitor isn’t always about graphical fidelity—refresh rate becomes paramount. AOC’s new Agon AG251FZ2 monitor (see it on Amazon) doesn’t come with a lot of bells and whistles, but it does come with 240Hz of crazy-smooth motion and a relatively affordable $279 price tag.

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Netflix's You: Season 2 Review

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This is a spoiler-free review of You Season 2, which is now streaming on Netflix.

As someone who watches television professionally, there’s a myriad of things to be considered before writing a review. How’s the writing? The acting? The directing? Are the motivations earned? What about the twists? Is it funny/sad/subversive enough? What is it trying to say? But perhaps the most important question of all for the everyday viewer is: is it fun? And on that level — as well as several others previously mentioned — You Season 2 is a gosh-darned treasure, an enjoyable binge and viewing experience as bonkers as the first.

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Lupin III: The First Review

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This review is via IGN Japan, where Lupin III: The First is now playing in theaters.

Lupin III: The First is the first computer-generated entry in the long-running franchise about the thieving adventures of the grandson of France’s famous thief Arsène Lupin and his merry band of frenemies. And while its story retreads old ground a little too much, it wears its new 3D animation style well. Lupin III: The First doesn’t stray far from its roots, relying heavily on the long-running franchise’s staples, but it does offer up a serviceable romp that doesn’t wear out its welcome.

The latest in the series is directed and written by Takashi Yamazaki, who’s an expert in this sort of thing: He directed 2014’s Stand by Me Doraemon, another CG take on a long-running Japanese franchise. The critical and financial success of that film no doubt inspired, at least partially, the production of this one, and Lupin’s transition to CG works just as well this time around.

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1917 Review

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This is a spoiler-free review for 1917, now in limited release. It opens in wide release on January 10, 2020.

Set over less than 24 hours on the Western Front, the harrowing 1917 is both simple in its story and breathtaking in its execution, intimate yet epic. Director Sam Mendes has delivered a completely engrossing survival thriller about two young British soldiers, Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman), on a perilous mission behind enemy lines.

Neither soldier is written to be particularly exceptional upon their introduction; they’re just two of the countless Everyman troops fighting in the First World War. It’s their very ordinariness and almost anonymous nature that lends this duo immediate sympathy and relatability. Blake and Schofield could be anyone, but they’ve been tasked with doing something extraordinary and heroic in the face of relentless danger: To deliver a time-sensitive message to another division to prevent them from falling into a German trap. If they fail to deliver it then 1600 soldiers, including Blake’s older brother, will die.

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Uncut Gems Review

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Uncut Gems opens in wide release Dec. 25.

You never know when Adam Sandler is going to emerge from lowbrow comedies set in tropical locales to really, really make something. But when he does, he sure collaborates with some fascinating artists. From Paul Thomas Anderson to Noah Baumbach to, now, Josh and Benny Safdie, directing brothers who have slowly but surely emerged into the larger cinematic conversation by making small but very effective, stylish films about what many would consider “real New Yorkers,” when Sandler gets serious, he also gets experimental. Just as the Safdies’ last film, Good Time, gave rise to career-best work from Robert Pattinson, Uncut Gems shows us an Adam Sandler we’ve never seen before.

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Little Women Review

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After her critically acclaimed and Oscar-nominated directorial debut Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig could have taken on any project in the world, and at first glance her choice was a surprisingly safe one. Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is one of the most widely read books in North America and has long been seen as a literary classic. That fact and the often stuffy and dated feel of period pieces mean that Gerwig's new project may seem a world away from the teen angst of Lady Bird. But as fans of the book will know, the narrative of young women struggling to find their places in a world that doesn't seem to fit them are shared over both the 2018 film and Alcott's novel from over a century before. It should be unsurprising then that Gerwig is a great fit to direct a thoroughly interesting and timely take on the sweetly radical story of the March sisters.

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Lost in Space: Season 2 Review

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The following is a mostly non-spoiler review for all 10 episodes of Lost in Space: Season 2, which premieres Tuesday, December 24 on Netflix.

Cosmic crusaders The Robinsons (plus Don West, Dr. Smith, and Robot) are back for the holidays, and this time the calamity-magnet clan is banding together to battle against hostile alien droids, creepy and corrupt mission officials, and general galactic chaos.

Netflix's Lost in Space reboot, once again, delivers a solid, satisfying run filled with dazzling effects and stunning heart. It tops Season 1 in terms of adventure and stakes, and, for a streaming series, it shows grand restraint by only being 10 episodes - with episode lengths actually varying (anywhere from 39 minutes to 54 minutes). That might sound like tacky praise, digging into the structure of the show, but it means that the story's being told in the amount of time the creators felt it needed, and not filling up pre-ordained space - a welcome change from most streaming series.

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His Dark Materials: Season 1 Review

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This review contains mild spoilers for His Dark Materials: Season 1, which has now aired in its entirety on HBO in the US and BBC One in the UK.

The BBC and HBO co-production of His Dark Materials got off to a strong start this fall, with an opening hour that set an epic tone and impressive visual standard for what was to follow. But the thematically-bare 2007 adaptation had those things going for it as well; the real question this new adaptation faced was whether the showrunners would finally bring the story to life with the same sense of danger, maturity, and grandiosity provided by Philip Pullman’s prose. In that respect, with some storytelling stumbles and concessions made so the story could thrive on a TV budget, the first season of His Dark Materials is largely a success.

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Spies in Disguise Review

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With the next James Bond movie not out for another few months, you may be pining for a good spy flick. Well, it’s not quite 007, but the new animated film Spies in Disguise has gadgets, the world’s greatest spy in Lance Sterling (voiced by Will Smith), a villain with a robot arm (Ben Mendelsohn) and a sort of Q in the form of a goofy kid named Walter Beckett (Tom Holland). It also has our super-spy turning into a very angry pigeon. That’s where the comparisons end. Spies In Disguise has a slow start, but once it accepts its wackiness, it turns into a charming film. The pairing of Tom Holland and Will Smith absolutely works. This might not be a must-see for adults, but if you’re bringing the kids in your family, you’ll definitely be entertained.

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Mr. Robot Series Finale Review

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Warning: Full spoilers follow for the two-part Mr. Robot series finale...

"Who I am...isn't real."

Mr. Robot shuttered up shop after four seasons with a marvelous, miraculous mind-bender that was overflowing with heart, hope, and humanity. Bravo!

For a few seasons, the show had teased a sci-fi twist with regards to Whiterose's mysterious machine. Was it a time travel device? Something that was capable of hitting a cosmic rewind button? Recently, it started to feel like she was after a portal into the multiverse. And that's actually the path we seemed to be on in the back third of last week's episode, "eXit."

How Did Mr. Robot End

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Just Mercy Review

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Just Mercy was reviewed out of the Toronto International Film Festival. The film is slated for limited release on December 25, 2019 and will go wide on January 10, 2020.

When defense attorney Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) first meets Walter “Johnny D” McMillian (Jamie Foxx), wrongfully convicted for capital murder, a wave of skepticism hits the room. After lamenting about the lawyers that have come and gone in his life with no real solution, McMillian leans in, looks Stevenson directly in his eye and asks “what you gonna do different?”

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Just Mercy explores that difference between other lawyers in Alabama and Stevenson’s decades-long commitment to justice and fighting Death Row laws. And what the film lacks in unpredictability, it gains in passionate performances.

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Netflix's The Witcher: Season 1 Review

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Welcome to our full The Witcher Season 1 review. Below you can find links to our SPOILER FILLED individual episode reviews, which are best read after viewing. If you'd like an overview of the whole season that contains only minor spoilers, please scroll past the links to read our The Witcher Season 1 review.

• Chapter 1 - "The End's Beginning" Review
• Chapter 2 - "Four Marks" Review
• Chapter 3 - "Betrayer Moon" Review

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My Hero Academia: Season 4, Episode 10

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This review contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Season 4, episode 10, aka episode 73 overall, "Temp Squad."

The final moment of My Hero Academia Season 4, Episode 9 was the most intense and beautifully animated of the whole episode, and so what better way to hype us up as we leap into Episode 10, “Temp Squad,” than to recap that moment? It’s an unnecessary reminder, plot-wise, and it doesn’t set up the episode in any meaningful way, but it’s visceral and exciting all the same.

Something that Season 4 has been increasingly good at is fleshing out the stories of supporting characters on the hero side of the fight, and “Temp Squad” even gives attention to one of its enemy henchmen once the episode gets going. While we’ve now had two full episodes dedicated to the background, personal struggles, and motivations of Class 1-A member Red Riot, here we also get into the mind of his current adversary: Rappa, the “spear” of the “spear and shield” pair which Red Riot and Fat Gum faced off against in the previous episode.

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The Witcher Season 1, Episode 8 - 'Much More' Review

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This review contains full spoilers for The Witcher Season 1, episode 8, titled "Much More". For a refresher, check out our review of episode 7, "Before a Fall".

The Witcher’s Season 1 finale is neatly personified by its title card treatment. The unique silver emblems used for each previous episode - among them a broken lion, a solar eclipse, and a beast-marked fleur-de-lis - combine to create the show’s logo, now displayed for the very first time within an episode. It’s an indication that the story’s many elements have finally combined to create the true form of The Witcher. In other words, the show has only just begun.

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BenQ Zowie XL2546 Gaming Monitor Review

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With the rise in Esports games like Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, competitive gamers are always looking for hardware that gives them the best edge against their opponents.

The BenQ Zowie XL2546 gaming monitor (see it on Amazon) aims to be a display for top-tier players, with a crazy-smooth 240Hz refresh rate and 1080p resolution so you can pump out as many frames as possible. BenQ lent us a unit to test out so we could see how it performed.

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The Witcher Season 1, Episode 7 - 'Before a Fall' Review

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This review contains full spoilers for The Witcher Season 1, episode 7, titled "Before a Fall". For a refresher, check out our review of episode 6, "Rare Species".

The penultimate episode of The Witcher’s freshman season resembles the show that many fans likely expected. Grand in scope (albeit not in physicality), it places Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri at the crossroads of a potentially monumental conflict. Armies march, mages scheme, and Geralt approaches his goals with singular purpose. After a season-long struggle with structure, it finally feels as if the show has found itself.

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The Witcher Season 1, Episode 6 - 'Rare Species' Review

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This review contains full spoilers for The Witcher Season 1, episode 6, titled "Rare Species". For a refresher, check out our review of episode 5, "Bottled Appetites". 

As The Witcher enters the final third of its first season, we’re treated to one of the fantasy genre’s greatest treasures: dragons. Not only that, but episode 6 is about as classic a Geralt story as can be told; a contract to kill a terrifying beast, with a moral dilemma right at the centre of it. It makes for one of the season’s more enjoyable tales, and sets the stage for developments in Geralt and Yennefer’s strange relationship to play out upon.

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The Witcher: Season 1, Episode 1 - 'The End's Beginning' Review

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This review contains full spoilers for The Witcher Season 1, episode 1, titled "The End's Beginning". 

Anyone who has read Polish fantasy author Andrzej Sapkowski’s plethora of novels, or played through the gargantuan trilogy of CD Projekt Red video games, will know that the world of The Witcher is a sprawling, knotty landscape. It’s a place of conflicting kingdoms, tragic families, and murky politics. To describe the saga’s plot to a newcomer without getting caught up in its many overlapping strands is a difficult task. Smartly circumnavigating this issue, Netflix’s The Witcher show starts small, and exactly where it needs to: with Geralt.

While the first episode of The Witcher - “The End’s Beginning” - has one eye on the larger picture, it is predominantly a small-scale introduction to Henry Cavill’s slayer of beasts, Geralt of Rivia. Stripping the story back to essentials is a sensible choice, and by the episode’s conclusion we have a pretty solid understanding of who he is, what drives him, and where he stands in the greater narrative. His destiny to meet Ciri helps anchor him in the episode’s ‘B plot’, and it’s clear where the character needs to go both in narrative and personal development.

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The Witcher: Season 1, Episode 3 - 'Betrayer Moon' Review

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This review contains full spoilers for The Witcher Season 1, episode 3, titled "Betrayer Moon". For a refresher, check out our review of episode 2, "Four Marks".

From the get-go, The Witcher has been content to focus on its leading characters and their smaller stories, leaving any sense of a grand plot simmering in the background. Episode 3, “Betrayer Moon,” continues that trend, once again opting to delve deeper into Yennefer’s origins and adapt yet another short story for Geralt’s quest-of-the-episode. That means we’ve now had a trio of tales dedicated to plot establishment, rather than development. But while it’s hard not to feel a little impatient about the season’s pace, “Betrayer Moon” does provide a consistent third chapter to Netflix’s fantasy series.

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The Witcher: Season 1, Episode 4 - Review

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This review contains full spoilers for The Witcher Season 1, episode 4, titled "Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials". For a refresher, check out our review of episode 3, "Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials".

We’ve reached the halfway mark of Netflix’s The Witcher, and episode 4 marks somewhat of a watershed moment for the show. The ties that bind Geralt and Ciri have finally been revealed, putting at least one of the show’s mysteries (partially) to bed. But the episode also feels as if it slams on the brakes, allowing for time to fill in the cracks of mysteries laid in previous stories. This creates what feels like a chapter designed to iron out creases rather that move the journey forward.

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The Witcher: Season 1, Episode 2 - 'Four Marks' Review

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This review contains full spoilers for The Witcher Season 1, episode 2, titled "Four Marks". For a refresher, check out our review of episode 1, "The End's Beginning".

The first episode of The Witcher eased us gently into Geralt’s world, much as the White Wolf himself would slowly slip into his famous bathtub. But that smooth and steady introduction halts here, as episode 2 - “Four Marks” - opens the floodgates on The Witcher’s lore, creating an at-times breathless rush of information, exposition, and history. If the first episode was a side-quest, then “Four Marks” is evening-long session of reading background information on the official Witcher wiki.

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The Witcher: Season 1, Episode 5 - 'Bottled Appetites' Review

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This review contains full spoilers for The Witcher Season 1, episode 5, titled "Bottled Appetites". For a refresher, check out our review of episode 4, "Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials".

It’s been a long time coming, but with episode 5 The Witcher finally gets a move on with its overarching plotlines. Geralt and Yennefer meet for the first time, and Nilfgaard actually enacts a plan to capture Ciri. There’s notable character development across the board, and a stronger feeling of coherence between the show’s separate threats. But despite this, episode 5 notably suffers from many of The Witcher’s production woes, which overshadow several of the story’s triumphs.

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Batman #85 Review

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In a week crammed full of major comic book finales, Batman #85 may be the most bittersweet. It's hard to even imagine an industry where a new Tom King-penned issue of Batman doesn't arrive twice a month. On the other hand, this series really lost its steam in late 2019, with "City of Bane" failing to capitalize on more than three years of buildup. Batman #85 is about as effective a finale as could be hoped for in light of these recent storytelling fumbles. But more importantly, it suggests the best may still be yet to come as King transitions to Batman/Catwoman next year.

Issue #85 unfolds as many recent installments have, with King dividing his script among multiple points in time. Even as the final confrontation between father and son plays out in the past, the story also follows Bruce after the dust of that battle has settled and Gotham has returned to some semblance of normality. What was the cost of this war, and what does the future hold for Bruce, Selina Kyle, Claire Cover and the rest of the Batman family?

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Borderlands 3: Moxxi's Heist of The Handsome Jackpot DLC Review

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Don’t get me wrong: I like Borderlands 3, but we’ve had a rocky relationship since launch. While I was initially extremely excited for it after seven years of waiting, I found it difficult to keep an interest once I had it in my hands and played it. It never really clicked for me, in part because the main game is too much like the two previous mainline Borderlands games, which I love dearly. However, after playing Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot, the first story expansion for Borderlands 3, I felt a fresh sense of Borderlands excitement again.

Aces High

As a long-time Borderlands fan, I was thrilled to see the (sort-of) return Handsome Jack. Without going into spoiler territory, Handsome Jack's sneering visage is everywhere in the new DLC in spite of the fact he's been officially and unequivocally dead since Borderlands 2. But Moxxi’s Heist is set on Jack’s space casino, so it makes complete sense – his narcissism wouldn't have allowed for anything less. That massive ego also gives us the origin of one of the new characters, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the villain of Borderlands 2, but that's about as deep as the character gets.

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Cats Review

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Ah, 2019, a year of cinematic innovation: The leap forward in motion-capture technology in Alita: Battle Angel. The nature documentary quality of The Lion King’s animation. The de-aging of Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino in The Irishman. And, just in time for Christmas, the cat’s finally out of the bag on the nightmare-inducing digital fur technology of director Tom Hooper’s adaptation of Cats, which grants cat-like versions of Jason Derulo and Taylor Swift the freedom to do big dance numbers without the burden of feline prosthetics. Only, with CGI covering their entire bodies, not to mention Hooper’s inexplicable need for green screen environments, all that dancing feels terribly inhuman.

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The Mandalorian: Episode 7 Review

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This review contains spoilers for The Mandalorian episode 7, "The Reckoning." To refresh your memory of where we left off, check out our Mandalorian episode 6 review, see when episode 8 of The Mandalorian will debut with our release schedule, and read our explainer if you're confused about when The Mandalorian takes place in the Star Wars timeline.

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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Review

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While we aim to make this review as spoiler-free as possible, we understand that the definition of such and sensitivities vary. We take pains to avoid references to any specific story events, but we do discuss themes and differences between the direction of this movie and previous Star Wars films.

There’s no way to end the Skywalker Saga and make all the fans happy – and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker certainly isn’t going to make all the fans happy. Those who loved The Last Jedi will surely be peeved by the jettisoning of what that divisive eighth installment introduced, while those irked by The Force Awakens’ nostalgia-bait will likely be irritated by Episode IX’s recycling of familiar beats and plentiful fan service. The Rise of Skywalker labors incredibly hard to check all the boxes and fulfill its narrative obligations to the preceding entries, so much so that you can practically hear the gears of the creative machinery groaning under the strain like the Millennium Falcon trying to make the jump to hyperspace. It ultimately makes the film a clunky and convoluted conclusion to this beloved saga, entertaining and endearing as it may be.

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Star Wars Battlefront 2 Review (2019)

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Almost since the beginning, Star Wars has been a story of redemption from darkness. So, in an ironic sort of way, Battlefront 2 is a better Star Wars game because of its initial fall to the dark side and subsequent journey back to the light. After over two years of updates and changes, EA and DICE have redeemed this gorgeous shooter and turned it into one of the best multiplayer adaptations of the Star Wars universe to date.

Taking in all Battlefront 2 now has to offer at once is honestly a bit overwhelming. Setting aside the overly safe, short, and disappointing single-player story, there’s a wealth of wave-based co-operative maps and a litany of online competitive multiplayer modes. Most of them play wonderfully and they all ooze that classic Star Wars look and feel on an unrivaled scale. Whether you’re fighting on the ground with a blaster in your hands, cutting down troops with a lightsaber, or dogfighting in space, Battlefront 2 is an immensely entertaining ride through a galaxy far, far away.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Arcade1up Cabinet Review

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Four-player arcade cabinets like TMNT are arguably the most fondly-remembered machines of the arcade era. Two such games, Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and TMNT: Turtles in Time, are among the most beloved of all thanks to excellent use of their license and eye-popping cartoon graphics.

Now Arcade1up, maker of 3/4-scale arcade cabinet replicas, released an at-home version of the famous TMNT 4-player cabinet in October (see it on Walmart) and I'm happy to say it rules extremely hard.

TMNT Arcade1up Cabinet – Design and Features

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Wattam Review

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Somewhere between a lucid dream, a children’s show, and an acid trip, you’ll find Wattam. The latest game from Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi is an absurd and colorful adventure full of anthropomorphised objects, laugh-out-loud goals, and a dreamlike sense of floaty imprecision. It’s not the meatiest of games (despite literally letting you play as meat), but it’s a ridiculous joy all the same while it lasts.

Wattam doesn’t really fit into any specific genre box, but you could most closely liken it to a third-person puzzle game. Bear with me here: you control a mustachioed green cube called the Mayor who wears a bowler hat with a confetti bomb inexplicably tucked underneath it. He starts out alone in the dark, but simple quest prompts guide you (and potentially a friend in local co-op) along to complete tasks that slowly repopulate the world around you.

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Rick and Morty: Season 4, Episode 5 Review

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Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Rick and Morty: Season 4, Episode 5! If you need a refresher on where we left off, here's our review for Season 4, Episode 4.

After waiting so long for new episodes of Rick and Morty, it may seem like a cruel joke for the series to return for five measly episodes before going on indefinite hiatus again. But as ever, quality trumps quantity, and Season 4 generally hasn’t disappointed in that regard. “Rattlestar Ricklactica” is an excellent Christmas special, a hilarious terminator parody and a great way to cap off the first half of Season 4, all rolled into one snake-flavored whole.

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My Hero Academia: Season 4, Episode 9 Review

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Picking up exactly where Episode 8 left off, Season 4 Episode 9 – “Red Riot” – opens on Amajiki standing over his beaten enemies before walking away and collapsing. This first short scene is a bit of a tonal mix: it’s nice to have a fluid continuity from one episode to the next, to keep the mood and the momentum going. It’s also a little jarring in a very shounen way – having an episode provide a definitive intro is always more satisfying for the audience than just picking up again almost mid-sentence.

After this and one more slow scene – one which awkwardly blends hand-drawn animation with CGI scenery repeated ad nauseum – the episode proper kicks into gear with a brawl that’s accompanied by a soundtrack of awesome piano/synth fusion. Two minor villains, Rappa and Tengai, go toe-to-toe with Fat Gum and Red Riot in a clash which one of the villains – Tengai – describes as a spear and a shield versus two shields.

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Watchmen: Season Finale Review

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This review contains spoilers for Watchmen episode 9, the season finale. To refresh your memory of where we left off, check out our review of Watchmen episode 8. For our theories on the final scene of the Watchmen finale, check out our ending explained.

HBO’s Watchmen ends about as well as one could’ve hoped. The show went from messy-but-intriguing in its first four episodes, to must-see-TV in its next four — “Little Fear of Lightning,” “This Extraordinary Being,” “An Almost Religious Awe” and “A God Walks Into Abar” — each of which focused on a small sliver of the story. The life of a single character, the effects of a single event, a singular series of flashbacks, and so on. Now that the story culminates, in its ninth and (possibly) final chapter, tying all these threads together, with one eye toward capturing the full scope of the series, proves to be a messy affair. However, if this is indeed the last we’ve seen of Watchmen, the show still manages to go out somewhat on top with “See How They Fly,” which places in its crosshairs vital ethical questions about power and responsibility in a world where people can become gods. It’s a good ending to a decent final episode of an occasionally masterful show.

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Boneworks Review

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What happens when you throw headcrabs, crowbars, and advanced physics puzzles into a dystopian cityscape? If the first thing that comes to mind is Half-Life 2, you’re only half right. Boneworks, by developer Stress Level Zero, is a clear homage to that and several other Valve classics. And while its mechanical ideas and atmosphere aren’t the most original, Boneworks’ best physics-driven moments manage to make VR feel more tangible than any other action-adventure game to date.

Physics-based arena games like Blade & Sorcery and Gorn have been a favorite of VR enthusiasts for years now, but Boneworks is the first VR game to take the idea of giving you a variety of objects, each with their own distinctively modeled weight and heft, and then use those as the components for solving single-player puzzles and combat. I was pleased to discover that there’s quite a thick campaign to progress through here, sprawling across nearly 13 different levels. There’s also a pretty cool original retrowave soundtrack by Michael Wyckoff, and it adds flavor to the overall ‘Half-Life meets Tron’ style that Boneworks is shooting for.

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The Expanse: Season 4 Review

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This is a mostly spoiler-free review of The Expanse Season 4, which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. 

After a hard-fought fan campaign that resulted in a plane flying over Amazon's offices with a "Save The Expanse" banner attached to its tail, the beloved former Syfy series is finally back on the air (in a manner of speaking). But has the show changed now that it has the backing of a $1 trillion e-commerce giant, instead of a traditional cable network?

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Marvel's Runaways: Season 3 Review

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This is a spoiler-free review for all 10 episodes of Marvel's Runaways: Season 3 - which was released Friday, December 13 on Hulu.

Marvel's Runaways wraps up its run with a third and final season that wisely bounces between two separate adventures (three, if you include the finale), avoiding much, but not all, of the repetitive stodginess of Season 2.

Format-wise, Runways isn't able to fully spread its wings as a binge. Hulu dosed out its first season on a weekly basis and that worked a lot better given the huge cast and the rotating door of soapy twists and turns, from enormous extraterrestrial reveals to teenage love triangles. Season 2 faltered by keeping our heroes in the same Gibborim rut and by releasing the entire season at once, which caused the story, between the teens and the parents, to easily became a blur of bickering and backstabbing. It became harder to care about who didn't like who from episode to episode.

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Netflix's 6 Underground Review

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6 Underground is cartoonishly raucous explosion porn from mayhem maestro Michael Bay that feels like a film that was made over a decade ago and was just somehow recently unearthed by Netflix. It's a testament to star Ryan Reynolds and his seemingly effortless charisma because without him the movie would have been a snow-blind mess.

Overstuffed with countless car crashes and numerous "booms" and "louds," 6 Underground owes pretty much any watchable aspects to Reynolds and his charm. And even with Reynolds, the film is overlong, easily trespassing into tedium at the halfway point.

The premise, in itself, feels very Avengers-esque, in the sense that it centers on a rogue team of specialized operatives who will happily cross borders and waters to right egregious wrongs. But 6 Underground is an argument both for and against the Sokovia Accords, as Reynolds plays a Tony Stark-level billionaire genius who's decided to fake his death, become a ghost, and pull off grand vigilante-style heists and hits with operatives he's recruited (and ghosted) in order to punish powerful evildoers (in this case, the dictator of Turgistan).

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Halo: The Master Chief Collection Review (2019)

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Five years after launch, Halo: The Master Chief Collection has finally fulfilled its full fan-service potential with the addition of the last missing game from the Xbox and Xbox 360 era, Halo Reach. It is a genuinely amazing package that now includes six of Microsoft’s classic single-player and co-op campaigns and legendary multiplayer modes, at long last free of any red-flag technical caveats. 343 Industries deserves a ton of credit for sticking with it after a notoriously bad launch and completing the long-term renovation of the house while its occupants lived (and played) inside. It’s admittedly a bit later than I’d anticipated, but the love letter to Master Chief has finally been delivered.

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Blue Yeti X USB Condenser Microphone Review

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When it comes to streaming and YouTube, there may be no better-known microphone than the Blue Yeti. Its affordable price, versatility, and dramatic quality improvement over gaming headsets have made it a streamer-favorite since its release in 2009. After ten years, competition has stiffened for the Yeti, but Blue is back with a successor and the company has a few tricks up its sleeve.

Today we’re looking at the Blue Yeti X (see it on Amazon). The new model has a new look, refined controls, built-in metering, and Blue Voice technology to completely customize your sound. Those features don’t come cheap as the Yeti X comes with a new, updated price of $169. Is it worth upgrading for the new features? Join us as we find out.

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The Mandalorian: Episode 6 Review

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This review contains spoilers for The Mandalorian episode 6, 'The Prisoner'. To refresh your memory of where we left off, check out our Mandalorian episode 5 review, find out when The Mandalorian episode 7 comes out with our release schedule, and if you're confused about The Mandalorian's timeline, here's when it takes place in the Star Wars canon.

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Black Christmas Review

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You better watch out. You better not cry, because it's not Santa that’s breaking in this yuletide. Black Christmas is back with another remake and a ferociously feminist take on this seasonal slasher story, courtesy of writer April Wolfe and Always Shine director Sophia Takal.

Inspired by the 1974 cult classic, Black Christmas stars Imogen Poots as a college senior who's spending winter break with her sorority sisters in their cozy campus housing. They have big plans for a celebratory feast and to shake-up the festivities of a notorious fraternity's talent show. But their reveries are ruined once a hooded figure breaks in and starts murdering off co-eds one by one.

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Castle Rock: Season 2 Review

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Warning: The following review contains full spoilers for Castle Rock: Season 2.

While Castle Rock's first season was ambitious in its own right, bringing us into a mixtape world of Stephen King -- filled with a few notable book characters, locations, and an avalanche of Easter eggs -- Season 2 is downright admirable insanity.

And where Season 1 gave us an original tale involving a mysterious young man (Bill Skarsgård) who had to be caged/protected lest calamity continue to fall on the community, Season 2 notably blended two famous King books (one of which became an award-winning movie): Salem's Lot and Misery.

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Phoenix Point Review

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As far as I’m concerned, the more takes on the classic X-COM formula of battling alien invasions on both a tactical and global scale the merrier. Phoenix Point has the distinction of being designed by the original creator of that formula, Julian Gollop, and it has some clever ideas that seem to respond to the acclaimed Firaxis-developed XCOM games that streamlined his original concept by reviving some of its famous complexity. Many of those ideas aren’t all that refined, though, and some wild balance swings and general bugginess make turning the tide against the invaders more of an uphill battle than usual.

Here, the unwelcome guests humanity is fighting are a combination of people and sea life that’ve been melded together by an alien virus unleashed by melting ice caps, which explains why many of the mutated enemies look like the revenge of the Red Lobster buffet. Basic grunts are an ugly jumble of crab-like parts and organic guns but some of the limited variety of more elaborate enemies have genuinely weird and creepy animations.

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South Park: Season 23 Finale Review

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Warning: this review contains full spoilers for South Park: Season 23, Episode 10. If you need a refresher on where we left off, here's our review for Season 23, Episode 9. 

South Park has spent much of Season 23 toying with its usual formula. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been pretending as if last year’s #CancelSouthPark promotion actually got the series booted off the air, replacing traditional South Park with spinoffs like “Tegridy Farms,” “One for the Ladies” and “The Scott Malkinson Show.” The finale tricks viewers into thinking the old status quo has finally been restored by finally bringing back the classic intro sequence and setting up a good, old-fashioned Christmas special. Instead, it quickly becomes clear that we aren’t quite done with Tegridy. And that, as it turns out, is just fine.

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Bombshell Review

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More than a year before stories of Harvey Weinstein's rampant sexual misconduct rocked Hollywood, Fox News was rattled by allegations that the conservative channel's CEO Roger Ailes had sexually harassed female employees, including former Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson and The Kelly File anchor Megyn Kelly. Now, the docudrama Bombshell explores this turbulent time that rocked the news industry in the build-up to the 2016 presidential election. The Big Short screenwriter Charles Randolph ushers audiences behind the scenes of Fox News, into the offices and homes of Roger Ailes and his accusers. But how deep does this exploration of workplace sexism go? And who is this movie really for?

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