Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us Review

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There's something incredibly charming about watching Pokémon on the big screen. It helps that Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us is a filled with dynamic animation, introduces a whole cast of engaging new characters, and crafts a positive environmentally-focused narrative which aims to teach without ever losing the fun that a film like this needs. The Power of Us is a continuation of the new timeline introduced in Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You, which reimagined the origin of the classic character, Ash Ketchum, and his partner in battle, Pikachu, establishing its own continuity separate from the multiple games, TV series, and previous films. The Power of Us is a sweet story about friendship and responsibility with an ecological bent.

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Anna and the Apocalypse Review

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There are a heck of a lot of films about Christmas, and a heck of a lot of films about the zombie apocalypse, and there sure are a heck of a lot of musicals. But Anna and the Apocalypse might very well be the first feature length motion picture to do all three genres at the same time. And believe it or not, it works.

Jolly, gross and pretty darned catchy, Anna and the Apocalypse tells the story of Anna (Ella Hunt), a high school student who plans to skip college for a year and go on an adventure abroad. Her best friend, John (Malcolm Cumming), only wants to make her happy, because he’s had a crush on Anna forever. Their kinda-sorta friend Steph (Sarah Swire) is ostracized in school, and the wholesome romance between Lisa (Marli Siu) and Chris (Christopher Leveaux) seems destined to end in happy, early marriage.

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Watch the Family Guy Cutaway Gag You Didn't See on TV

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Family Guy is known for its iconic cutaway gags, but after sixteen seasons of insanity, you've got to wonder just how many jokes ended up on the cutting room floor, either for timing, common decency, or because the episode already had too many detours.

Sure, they're probably not all hilarious, but judging by our exclusive deleted scene from the Season 16 DVD release (available beginning Dec. 4), we'd bet we've missed out on a few gems over the years. Check out the brief (but painfully relatable) clip above for a chuckle you didn't see on TV.

For more on Family Guy, check out what the showrunners had to say about Season 17 and how they plan to tackle the show's 20th anniversary.

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Titans Debuts Another Memorable DC Hero

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

It's an even-numbered episode of Titans, which means it's time for the series to draw another outside character into Dick Grayson's world. At least in this case the focus shifts to another long-standing Teen Titans character rather than whatever batch of heroes DC is attempting to position for a spinoff series. Donna Troy doesn't make as strong a first impression as the likes of the Doom Patrol, but she does show more potential in terms of being a lasting, significant presence on the show.

The opening flashback scene is key in terms of establishing the history between Dick and Donna. They're basically two lonely sidekicks who found a friend in each other while their parents discussed work. In a rare moment of innocence, Dick even explains their relationship by saying, "Her mom knew my dad." It's a great way to induct Donna into the fold and reveal that not every aspect of Dick's childhood at Chez Wayne was so awful. It helped this episode feel like less of a side-story than most of the even-numbered episodes have been. Donna is basically the source of stability Dick needs as he grapples with giving up the Robin mantle and searching for something new.

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Audeze Mobius Gaming Headset Review

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Audeze burst onto the scene ten years ago, and since its inception has become a household name – if your household is full of high-end headphone enthusiasts, that is. The company was born out of a meeting between two headphone industry professionals and an engineer who had developed special materials for NASA, and they wanted to use some of those materials in the production of a headphone line. The result was a true high-end headphone experience that cost up to $4,000. (Yes, that is the correct number of zeroes.) Luckily one of those zeroes disappears for the company's first gaming headset, the Mobius (See it on Audeze's site). It's a high-grade wireless (or wired) cross-platform gaming headset with sophisticated technology, and head-tracking for VR. They're in a class of their own due to their design and $400 price tag, so how well does that high-end philosophy translate to gaming?

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Underworld Ascendant Review

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I had finally done it. After several hours of navigating bugs and glitches, surviving enemies whose AI seemed to ping-pong between omniscient and ludicrously stupid, and maze-like level design, I had reached the end of an area of Underworld Ascendant that had given me considerable trouble. I actually paused, allowed myself to feel that relief and euphoria one gets when they never have to look at something terrible again. The portal to the exit was before me. I stepped forward.

...And fell through the floor, as the geometry of the Stygian Abyss decided arbitrarily to render itself ethereal. The Ascendant, Underworld’s protagonist, plummeted into some sort of netherscape that forced a reset to escape, and, thanks to Underworld Ascendant’s ludicrous save system, all progress in the level in question was lost. An entire night spent meticulously poking around, exploring, fighting, and sneaking was rendered moot by something beyond my control.

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South Park Takes a Major Nosedive

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

Early on in this week’s South Park episode, we see Cartman ranting about ManBearPig, electric scooters, Black Panther being a lousy movie and pretty much every other recurring plot point from Season 22 so far. Cartman is sure it’s all somehow connected, even if he can’t quite put his finger on it. Cartman seems to be giving voice to the the frustrations of the South Park writing staff in that moment. They seem to want to tie together all the season’s loose ends in a neat little package. But it’s clearly not working, and the end result is the underwhelming “Buddha Box.”

“Buddha Box” tended to play to the show’s worst impulses in terms of taking good jokes and beating them into the ground until there’s nothing but dust left. Both halves of the conflict this week were basically one-note gags stretched well past the breaking point. On one hand, you have Cartman faking anxiety as a way of spending more time on his phone. On the other, you have the PC Babies crying at all the minor social injustices of the world. Neither plot point had nearly enough meat to support an entire episode.

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Marvel's Uncanny X-Men Relaunch Keeps Getting Worse

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Marvel's Uncanny X-Men relaunch seems poised to go down as one of the great comic book-related disappointments of 2018. Even after three issues, the series has done little to rectify the problems that have been apparent from the beginning. There's little sense of direction to the series beyond the rehashing of old tropes and a constantly revolving door of old characters making their return. It seems that the weekly format simply doesn't suit the X-Men as well as it has Spider-Man and the Avengers in the past.

When Marvel first revealed that this initial ten-issue storyline would be titled "X-Men Disassembled," the hope was that the execution would diverge a lot more from "Avengers Disassembled" than it actually has. This story follows the same basic pattern, with the X-Men facing overwhelming threats from all sides and a mysterious enemy working feverishly to bring the team to its knees. But for various reasons, none of the chaos and destruction carries much weight. The story never lingers on any one character long enough for the reader to form a strong connection. The best that can be said for the story is that it's at least become more digestible since issue #1 now that it has a more straightforward, linear structure. But "digestible" is still a long way from "compelling."

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Vikings Midseason Premiere Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for Vikings' Season 5 midseason premiere follow...

"The Revelation," featuring Clive Standen's Rollo return to the fold as Lagertha's lovelorn opponent once again, is a good opener for the second half of Season 5, though most of it operates as a dry piece-mover, getting characters into proper position for the stories ahead.

Rollo's arc, and his moments with Lagertha and Bjorn, are the heart of this chapter while the rest features acceptable aftermath-ish scenes, showing the consequences of Ivar's conquering of Kattegat. Cliffhangers, like Floki's yearn to sacrifice himself out in Iceland, are answered in short order (Helgi casts the deciding vote against the idea), while King Alfred (with Prince Aethelred as his attack dog) is briefly shown ruffling the feathers of his court by suggesting education be made available to all - while the realm's under constant attack from Norsemen on all sides.

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DC's Heroes in Crisis Has a Gripping Flashback Chapter

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Reading Heroes in Crisis has been a jarring experience, to say the least. The first two issues quietly killed off several major DC characters with zero fanfare. And as much as that speaks to the random, senseless nature of so many real-world cases of mass-murder, it's still difficult to come to terms with these deaths. It's probably just well that DC elected to roll a pair of planned tie-in issues into the main Heroes in Crisis miniseries. Issue #3 takes a step back and shines a light on some of the fallen heroes whom Sanctuary failed. In the process, readers are given crucial added context for the larger story being told.

Tom King remains the writer here, but apart from the two bookend pages, regular artist Clay Mann is replaced by guest artist Lee Weeks. It's hard to be too upset about that switch-up when King and Weeks have proven themselves to be a fantastic team in their own right. Weeks' art really gels with the pervasive tone of melancholy fueling Heroes in Crisis. Whereas Mann's sleek figures and Tomeu Morey's vivid colors in the main issues seem to create an ironic clash between visual tone and subject matter, Weeks really dives into the darker, moodier side of being a hero in the DCU. There's an aching sadness and a poignant beauty to most of Weeks' pages.

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Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle Review

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Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle begins an exclusive limited theatrical engagement on November 29, 2018 and launches globally on Netflix December 7.

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is a somber, serious retelling of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, a tale which has become, for better or worse, inextricably linked in the public consciousness with Disney’s animated, family-friendly adaptation. Director Andy Serkis’ Mowgli intentionally avoids any such cuddliness in favor of a less playful coming of age story set in a world full of danger, where learning to keep your guard up is a key lesson for survival. Forgetting about your worries and your strife will get you killed in Andy Serkis’ Jungle Book.

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Marvel's Ironheart Rises Above its Shortcomings

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Perhaps the defining challenge of this new era of Marvel is finding a way to balance a renewed emphasis on classic heroes, classic costumes and classic status quos with a sense of experimentation and risk. What happens to all those younger, more diverse characters like Miles Morales and Amadeus Cho and Riri Williams that were introduced or elevated to greater positions of prominence in recent years? Do they get shoved to the side now that Marvel's core fan-favorites are back in the spotlight? Particularly in the case of Riri, is there a path forward for this character now that Tony Stark has reclaimed the Iron Man mantle and co-creator Brian Michael Bendis has jumped over to DC?

Marvel certainly seems to think so, as Riri is back in her own solo series thanks to the debut of Ironheart. And rather than put this character in the hands of another mainstay creator, they've brought in a new voice in poet/academic Eve Ewing. That's probably a wise move on Marvel's part. As much as writers like Bendis, Mark Waid and Jim Zub have done to flesh out this new heroine over the past couple years, it might be nice to get the perspective of someone who isn't a middle-aged white guy for a change. Ewing does bring a fresh voice to Riri's world, though one that feels as though it needs some time to coalesce.

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Should We Care About Wolverine's Return?

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For better or for worse, Return of Wolverine reads very much like a direct sequel to 2014's Death of Wolverine. It has the same spartan, stripped-down storytelling approach. It's also marked by its own novel approach to depicting Wolverine's powers and personality. But visually, this sequel fails to meet the lofty standard set by its predecessor.

Issue #3 features the long-awaited reunion between Logan and the X-Men. Though with Logan currently grappling with amnesia and being in the middle of an important mission, the X-Men are more hurdles to overcome than friends with which to reconnect. The "Wolverine goes rogue against the X-Men" trope is nothing new at this point, but writer Charles Soule and artist Declan Shalvey find plenty of room to freshen up the execution. The recurring motif of Wolverine accessing fragments of his old personality pays off nicely here. We get to see Wolverine the tactician, one who knows how to fight smart and exploit his opponents' weaknesses. That's not a version of Wolverine we get to see often enough. And that version contrasts nicely with the more human Logan, one who shines through occasionally when flashes of his old life shine through the current fog of war.

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Astro A50 Wireless Gaming Headset + Base Station Review

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The Astro A50 Wireless Headset + Base Station is the third generation of Astro’s top-of-the-line gaming headset (See it at Amazon). It comes in two flavors: a black and blue version that’s compatible with PC, Mac, and PS4—and a grey and green headset that works on PC, Mac, and Xbox One. Both editions boast Dolby Headphone 7.1 surround sound (though its only supported with movies on PS4 Pro) and a base station that charges the headset wirelessly.

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Review

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This is an advanced spoiler-free review for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The movie swings into theaters on Dec. 14 in the US, in the UK on Dec. 12, and in Australia on Dec. 13. 

There’s no replacing a comic book legend like Peter Parker, but Sony Animation’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse makes a strong case for why more “Spider-People” is a good thing. Miles Morales’ journey from zero to hero is brought to life with jaw-dropping animation, whimsical callbacks to previous Spider-Man media, and memorable side characters from the multiverse that range from fan-favorite Spider-Gwen to the outright bizarre Spider-Ham.

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The Flash Serves Plenty of Thanksgiving Cheer

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

Thanksgiving is a time for togetherness and reflection, and in Central City that means looking back at your dysfunctional relationship with your father and having an emotional meltdown. Father/daughter relationships were clearly the big theme of this week’s episode. And while I tend to get annoyed with episodes that make such a blatant display of drawing parallels between heroes and villains, this episode is earnest and heartwarming enough to forgive its reliance on holiday-flavored schmaltz.

The Barry/Nora dynamic took a sharp turn this week as two decades of repressed emotional trauma finally burst forth all at once. As cutesy as their relationship has been most of this season, this proved to be a welcome dramatic shift. It’s safe to say we understand Nora and what drives her a little more, as well as appreciate how much of her hostility towards Iris has been a case of emotional projection on Nora’s part. She also went through a key moment in her superhero evolution this week. Nora finally understands something her father seemed to intuitively grasp from the beginning - that being a hero means laying your life down each and every day on the job.

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Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop Review

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Acer’s Nitro 5 lineup is comprised of a budget-friendly range of models designed for casual gamers. Though it offers Intel-based models, it also offers three different Nitro 5 models equipped with AMD CPUs and GPUs. All three are priced under $750, which makes them some of the least expensive gaming laptops available. I previously reviewed a non-AMD Nitro 5 gaming laptop and ultimately found it mostly underwhelming, so I was curious what the experience would be like with an AMD model (See it at Best Buy). It's also the first AMD-based laptop I've seen in quite some time, so I was excited to see how it fared compared to Intel's latest.

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PlayStation Classic Review

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One of the earliest marketing slogans for Sony’s first video game console was “Don’t underestimate the power of PlayStation.” It’s now 24 years later and it’s the power of nostalgia that can’t be undervalued, particularly when you first turn on the PlayStation Classic and are instantly teleported back more than two decades by the iconic Sony Computer Entertainment splash screen and sweeping synth sound. Unfortunately, this nostalgic jolt doesn’t last past scrolling through the short menu of just 20 included games, as this adorable miniature version of the most popular gaming console of the ‘90s lacks too many big names to truly live up to the ‘Classic’ label.

That’s not to say there aren’t some heavy hitters in the 20 games included on the PlayStation Classic roster, and certainly such a short list could never be absolutely definitive when culled down from the thousands of games that were released over the system’s six-year lifespan. But a lineup of ‘classic’ PlayStation games without a Gran Turismo, Tomb Raider, Wipeout, or Crash Bandicoot, to name a few of the most glaring omissions, makes for a compilation that feels decidedly incomplete and not really reflective of the system at its best, particularly at its relatively high price point ($99.99USD/£89.99GBP/$149.95AUD). It’s basically the gaming equivalent of getting front row seats at a Guns ‘n’ Roses concert and having the band not play anything off Appetite for Destruction.

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Arrow's Prison Storyline Has an Underwhelming Conclusion

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

The cast and crew of Arrow have been hyping this week’s episode pretty hard. It’s not hard to understand why. “The Slabside Redemption” is the culmination of Season 7’s big prison storyline, and the source of the long-awaited rematch between Oliver Queen and Ricardo Diaz. But despite all that, this episode doesn’t quite live up to expectations. It’s not even the strongest episode of Season 7, for that matter.

On some level, you have to feel bad for the cast and crew that this episode is airing mere weeks after Daredevil Season 3 hit Netflix. That series already serves as the gold standard when it comes to superhero martial arts on TV, and that’s to say nothing of the amazing, single-take prison fight scene from Episode 4. It’s difficult not to bring up comparisons between the two given how similar they are in terms of tone and setting.

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LG 34GK950G Ultrawide G-Sync Gaming Monitor Review

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Gaming on an ultrawide is a wonderfully immersive experience. The extra screen real estate on the sides is incredibly useful both for the increased HUD and hotbar space as well as the wider view it allows – especially in first-person shooters. The LG UltraGear 34GK950G (See it on Amazon) is the company's newest ultrawide, and it adds Nvidia's G-Sync technology to the mix along with a high refresh rate, and a nano IPS display. At $1,400 it's one of the most expensive monitors available right now but the price isn't that surprising given its spec chart. Let's see if it's worth it.

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Darksiders III Review

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We haven’t seen many games like Darksiders III in the past decade or so. It’s a third-person action game that isn’t afraid to grind your progress to a halt for an hour or more until you figure out how to beat a seemingly-impossible boss. It doesn’t seem to aspire to match the visual polish of this year’s biggest blockbusters, and its design philosophy completely disregards all the hand-holding and coddling that has become the norm outside of Dark Souls and its brethren. But the combat is satisfying – and, you know, maybe not every game needs to be a giant open world with a million things to collect and a never-ending supply of side quests. Darksiders III fits comfortably in that spot.

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The Walking Dead Midseason Finale Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 9 midseason finale follow.

Welp.

So long, Jesus. You were on the cusp of becoming a character we cared about. And, as it turns out, my "Who'll Be the First to Get Killed By the Whisperers?" piece was dead on (pun intended) insofar as who might die in this episode specifically. Last week's Jesus arc felt like an "I'll Be Right Back" farewell, and as soon as he suggested that everyone split up this week when the herd was drawing down on them, it pretty much sealed the deal. (Check out Tom Payne's thoughts on Jesus's death courtesy of the Whisperers here.)

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Titans Loses Momentum in "Asylum"

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

Titans is a slow burn of a series in the best of weeks. It's not just the fact that the show seems intent on alternating between plot-driven episodes and side-stories focusing on characters like the Doom Patrol and Jason Todd. Even the "main" episodes tend to unfold at a very methodical pace. It's taken half of Season 1 just to bring these four heroes together. There's no telling how much longer it'll take for them to evolve into a legitimate superhero team, much less gain the costumes, the headquarters and everything else that comes with the job.

At this point, it seems pretty safe to assume we're not going to get any of that in Season 1. We're rapidly nearing the end of this initial batch of ten episodes and our heroes are still on the road, figuring out their next move and uncovering more about Rachel's true nature. There's nothing inherently wrong with such a methodical approach to world-building. Still, it's hard not to come away a little frustrated after an episode like "Asylum."

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AMC's Little Drummer Girl is a Worthy Successor to The Night Manager

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Note: this is a mostly spoiler-free review of all six episodes of AMC's The Little Drummer Girl. I'll confine all spoiler-y discussion to a final section at the end.

In the old days, it was debatable as to whether film or television is the better medium for John le Carré adaptations. You really need a feature film budget to fully capture the scope and globetrotting appeal of these spy stories. On the other hand, given how complex and even convoluted these stories can be, it helps to have multiple hours in which to really explore these characters and their conflicted loyalties. But thanks to this golden age of prestige TV, we now have the best of both worlds. Like 2016's The Night Manager before it, The Little Drummer Girl combines slick production values with a talented cast and a complex story full of betrayal and deception.

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The Front Runner Review

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The Front Runner was originally reviewed at the Toronto International Film Festival. It expanded into more theaters Nov. 21.

It would be easy to dismiss director Jason Reitman’s The Front Runner as a film that’s too late to the conversation. After all, a politician losing his career for cheating on his wife may seem too small to deserve a movie now when contemporary politicians get away with far bigger misdeeds. But while Reitman's well-acted film does manage to find relevance in its scrutiny of politicians and the press who cover them, it's just too indecisive to say anything deeply important about either camp.

Hugh Jackman plays a different kind of great showman here, real life US politician Gary Hart who, after coming in second for the Democratic primaries in 1984, became the obvious front runner to win the presidency in 1988. The title card notes that a lot can happen in the three weeks leading up to the election, and we subsequently follow the downfall of a man who not only seemed like the sure winner, but the absolute best candidate to lead a nation. Jackman captures Gary Hart’s quick wit and charisma, convincing one there was never any doubt of him winning. During his campaign tour, we see Hart expertly throwing axes, calming a journalist scared of turbulence, and sharing his radical viewpoints (for the time). He seems like the perfect man, and Jackman sells it with a winning smile. Yet behind the smile hides a very private man. “It’s none of their business”, Hart says repeatedly throughout the film when grilled about his personal life, and it encapsulates the film’s approach to such a guarded character. Some will likely leave The Front Runner not knowing anything more about Gary Hart the person than they did before, and that’s probably how he would have wanted it.

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Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4) - Turf Wars DLC Review

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A second act should always feel darker than the first, but I wasn’t prepared for quite how literally Insomniac would take that rule of storytelling. The majority of Turf Wars, the second of Spider-Man’s three-part DLC plotline, takes place almost entirely against a slate-grey sky, sapping the colour from this usually vibrant depiction of New York. It’s an intended and effective metaphor, of course – things have taken a dark turn, with mob boss Hammerhead running rampant across the city.

But, unintentionally, it sums up how I feel about Turf Wars, too – this is a greyer experience than first outing, The Heist. Peter Parker’s more worried (and crucially, less quippy), and the mixture of extra story missions and challenges is beginning to feel rather expected. It’s still the same game fundamentally, it just doesn’t feel quite as exciting.

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The Flash Just Namedropped Mr. Freeze

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This review contains spoilers for The Flash Season 5, episode 6, titled "The Icicle Cometh."

The Flash has been teasing the mystery of Caitlin's father for a while now, so in some respects, it's refreshing that the show is offering answers so early in the season with "The Icicle Cometh." Unfortunately, those answers are delivered via some of the show's clunkiest dialogue and most predictable plot twists in recent memory. After losing her fiance, having a decidedly chilly relationship with her mother, and sharing her body with a murderous alter-ego, it's just Caitlin's luck that her long-lost father would also be a despotic villain.

The bad guy dad twist would be forgivable if it wasn't so painfully obvious, but between Cisco's suspicions and Caitlin's blind hope that she'll finally get a happy reunion with her long-lost pop, the episode telegraphs Caitlin's heartbreak from the jump. And while none of the Arrowverse shows are known for their nuanced writing, having a villain dramatically explain every attack they launch (or awkwardly declare, "more superheroes to freeze!" when the heroes show up) is even more egregious than Arnold Schwarzenegger's dialogue in Batman & Robin. (Puns are way more forgivable than stating the obvious.)

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Battlefield V Review

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Welcome, Battlefield fans! Now that we’ve taken in-depth looks at the single-player and multiplayer sides of Battlefield V, it’s time for our final overview and verdict. For the full picture, make sure to check out each part.

While it’s absolutely a massive and addictive shooter, there’s little question in my mind that Battlefield V launched well before it was ready. Between the brevity and lack of gameplay variety in the single-player campaign, the problems that arise when playing anything other than Conquest on certain maps, and perhaps most troubling of all, the frequent and sometimes game-breaking bugs are all issues that seem like they could be solved with a couple more months of development time.

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1MORE Spearhead VRX Gaming Headphones Review

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You have probably never heard of 1MORE, but the company has enjoyed a solid foothold in the realm of audio headphones for music lovers for a few years now with a wide selection of on-ear and in-ear options. They recently entered the gaming headset arena with the release of the Spearhead VR early in 2018, and have now followed up with the more expensive VRX (See it on Amazon). The main draw of the VRX is the inclusion of Waves NX Head Tracking technology, which moves sounds around your head as you move in all directions – perfect for a VR environment. But beyond the new tech how well do they perform as a gaming headset?

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Robin Hood Review

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The saga of Robin Hood, the British nobleman who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor, is now so iconic and so familiar that any filmmaker who wants to spend exorbitant amounts of money to tell it again had better at least try to contribute something new to the character’s legacy.

Otto Bathurst’s new rendition, starring Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Golden Circle) as the title character, appears to have taken that challenge and thrown it to the ground and stepped on it a few times, just in case. This new Robin Hood evokes a few modern storytelling styles, and has a charismatic new cast, but offers no interesting perspective on the character or his adventures. It may very well be the first Robin Hood movie without an actual point.

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Laurel and Felicity Shine in an Eventful Arrow Episode

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

One of the big changes with The Flash this season has involved the shift to a more segmented form of storytelling. That series has started taking a page from Agents of SHIELD by breaking its year-long story into multiple, discrete acts rather than doing the “one season, one major villain” thing yet again. I don’t know that new showrunner Beth Schwartz has said anything to similar effect when it comes to Arrow, but it definitely feels like this series is also shifting in that direction.

And that’s very much to Arrow’s benefit. “Due Process” shows how quickly the momentum can shift and how a seemingly innocuous, mid-stage chapter in a larger narrative can suddenly take a dramatic and exciting turn.

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Green Book Review

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Green Book is a sentimental road trip buddy picture about racism and classism and snobbery in the middle of the 20th century, starring Viggo Mortensen as an Italian-American working class joe, hired to chauffeur one of the most celebrated artists in America through the South on a multi-city tour. That artist is Dr. Don Shirley, played by Mahershala Ali, and along the way both men have heck of a lot to learn about racism.

They bicker, they bond, and in one scene they fawn over Kentucky Fried Chicken so much that the company is probably furious they had to change their name to “KFC.” They also encounter virulent hatred, corrupt police officers and dehumanizing business owners. It’s a cavalcade of opportunities for Mortensen and Ali, two of the finest actors working today, to build an enchanting bond on camera, and explore it as much as they possibly can.

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AmazonBasics Mini Condenser Microphone Review

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Amazon’s in-house AmazonBasics line of products aim to create affordable, “good enough” products from every category you can think of: speakers, luggage, paper shredders, batteries...seriously, everything. Their Desktop Mini Condenser Microphone (see it on Amazon) is a midrange USB microphone that sells for $42 and is designed to just be a decent mic for video calling, streaming, or even basic podcasting. Its primary competition is the Blue Snowball, which is just $10 more but from a much more respected brand (at least when it comes to audio equipment).

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Youtube's Origin Repackages Sci-Fi Horror Tropes

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Note: this is a mostly spoiler-free review of Origin Season 1, which is currently available to stream on YouTube Premium and YouTube TV.

Premise: A group of astronauts fights for survival aboard their ship while an alien menace hunts them one by one. Premise: In a cyberpunk future, the landscape is dominated by endless rain and towering, neon-drenched skyscrapers. Premise: A small group of travelers are tasked with colonizing a new world, assuming their damaged craft can get them there in one piece. Premise: As humanity faces political, economic and ecological collapse, more and more people are retreating into the virtual reality realm. Premise: a group of strangers are trapped in a strange place as they slowly unravel a giant conspiracy perpetrated by a mysterious group of "others."

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Carnage Returns and Injustice 2 Ends This Week

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With dozens of comic books to choose from, let us show you which are the best coming out this week. Take a look at this list spotlighting our favorite comics that we know are money-well-spent and new books that look cool and are backed by some top-tier talent.

Once you check out our picks, head to the comments to let us know what you’ll be buying this week!

Web of Venom: Carnage Born #1 - $4.99

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The Walking Dead: "Stradivarius" Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

Walking Dead star Michael Cudlitz returned to the fold this week to direct his former castmates in "Stradivarius," a decent-enough bridging episode that kept the new information flowing while also setting the story up for a big confrontation out in the woods for next week's midseason finale.

"Stradivarius" suffered from the same small struggles that "The Obliged" faced back before Rick got near-fatally wounded by his panicked rearing horse. It was sort of half an episode. Meaning, it was the cocking of the gun but not the pulling of the trigger. And because the story had to end before things got good, a bunch of chit chat was added to fill the time. Fortunately, due to the huge time jump, there was a lot to talk about. We still had more to learn about the newbies (and how much they loved them some "Bernie" - hoo, boy) and we had all the Hilltop goings-on to catch up on.

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Battlefield V - Multiplayer Review

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Welcome, Battlefield fans! This year, we've broken up the review into its single-player and multiplayer components to give fans of each style of play a better idea of what's up. This review covers only the multiplayer mode – read the single-player review here, and stand by for the overall Battlefield V review, coming soon.

With all of the development muscle behind EA DICE’s massive shooter, I didn’t expect going in that playing Battlefield V’s multiplayer would feel so much like discovering a very promising early access game. It appears that there’s a sizeable number of modes and major bug fixes still to be delivered. To its credit, a cavalcade of clever gameplay changes succeeds in taking the series’ standard 64-player warfare in a more tactical direction, but the execution of this long-awaited return to a World War II setting simply feels rushed. Still, there's plenty of dynamic FPS fun to be had in the Battlefield V of today, and it’s the kind of shooter I could see becoming one of the best in the series’ history after some substantial updates.

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Netflix's Dog Is a Heartwarming Experience

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Note: this is a spoiler-free review of Dogs, which is available to stream now on Netflix.

Netflix has become a great source for documentary and reality TV fanatics lately. But sometimes it's hard to work up the energy to watch a series like Making a Murderer, knowing full well you're just going to come away feeling depressed and hopeless. Fortunately, Netflix also seems to have specialized in "comfort food documentaries," shows that actively work to cheer you up and make you feel a little bit better about the state of the world. First, there was the surprisingly excellent revival of Queer Eye. Now there's Dogs, a series for anyone who's ever wasted hours ogling dog pictures on Instagram or used the phrase "H*ckin' good pupper" in casual conversation.

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Netflix's CAM Review

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Cam is a uniquely thrilling film not just because it sits comfortably inside the genre and delivers at almost every turn, but also because it's a film about sex work that feels interesting, authentic, and most importantly authentic. That realism comes begins with Daniel Goldhaber's tight direction--which tends to be pretty neutral until they want to ramp up the paranoia, which is done to startling effect--but it mostly stems from writer Isa Mazzei, an ex-cam girl herself.

Madeline Brewer takes on the role of Lola, a young woman whose ascending career as a cam girl takes on a horrific edge when she wakes up to discover her channel has been taken on by an impostor who looks scarily like her. Brewer does a great job balancing the dual roles. Her performance as the original Lola is a ball of shredded nerves, bitten fingernails, and palpable fear, whereas the impostor is a more polished, outgoing, and reckless version of our protagonist.

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Creed II Review

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While Creed II continues boxer Adonis Creed’s fight to establish his own identity, the sequel ironically falls victim to the very lesson he has to learn: the only way to live up to a legacy is to create your own. Sadly, Creed II just doesn’t do that.

Ryan Coogler’s stylish, intense 2015 original worked so well because it told us an old story in a new way, always knowing when to go a little over the top (remember when Adonis boxes a projection of his father?) and when to underplay things. That understanding is where Creed II director Steven Caple Jr.’s seeming attempt to recreate the same tone misses the mark so glaringly. Creed II tries so hard to live up to its predecessor that it doesn’t end up having much of its own identity. Had Caple abstained from the Rocky formula a little more and made this movie his own, we could have had a much more interesting story, instead of a rehash of a film that already skewed close to the 1976 classic.

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Titans Makes Great Use of New Robin Jason Todd

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

This week's Titans further solidifies the pattern established by the previous episodes. Apparently the show is just going to keep alternating between plot-driven episodes and side stories that focus more on individual characters and guest stars. This is starting to become a frustrating approach. With the first season rapidly drawing to a close, it's enough to wonder how much progress the show will be able to make in terms of building the team and establishing the threat amassing against them. It's definitely too much to expect Raven's journey to wrap up by the end of Season 1.

Still, these regular side-stories have always managed to add something to the bigger picture. Like "Hawk and Dove," "Jason Todd" introduces another DC superhero as a way of shedding more light on Dick Grayson's troubled background. Curran Walters' Jason Todd is both an entertaining anti-hero in his own right and a sobering reminder of what Dick Grayson might have become had he stuck around Gotham City much longer.

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Narcos: Mexico Is a Gritty, Drug-Fueled Ride

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This is a SPOILER-FREE review of the first season of Narcos: Mexico. All 10 episodes are available to stream on Netflix.

Netflix's historical drug-fueled drama is back - only this time around, the narrative moves away from the confines of Columbia to the bustling streets of Guadalajara. The fourth installment in the series, titled Narcos: Mexico, effectively expands its world with strong performances from both Diego Luna and Michael Peña, wisely avoiding the pitfalls of relying too heavily on the success of previous entries. In order to make Narcos feel like a shared universe, there are some entertaining, "hey, I know that character from..." moments, but the cameos don't overshadow the new and intriguing storylines.

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AOC AG322QC4 Gaming Monitor Review

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AOC’s AG322QC4 is a 31.5-inch curved FreeSync gaming monitor offering up a QHD (2560x1440) resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, and HDR support. It uses a VA panel that delivers stellar contrast and accurate colors, along with a speedy 4ms response time (See it on Amazon). It's mainly competing with Samsung’s 32-inch curved C32HG70 monitor IGN recently reviewed, so let's see how it fares.

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Sid Meier's Civilization VI for Switch

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When I first reviewed Civilization VI back in 2016, here's what I had to say about it as I awarded it a score of 9.4 (for amazing) and nominated it for game of the year:

"Civilization VI will go down in history as the most fully-featured launch version in the series. Many of those are smartly revamped versions of Civ classics, but it finds its own identity with great new ideas like spread-out cities, customizeable governments, research boosts, and leader agendas. And even though the AI has some improving to do, it can put up enough of a fight to make world domination a challenge."

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South Park Gets More Mileage Out of Red Dead Redemption 2

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

As enjoyable as South Park’s multi-episode storylines can be, sometimes it seems like there’s no winning with these more ambitious efforts. Either the core joke driving the story gets played out over time, or else the series works so hard to keep drawing in new ideas and timely news stories that the whole thing becomes unwieldy and collapses under its own weight. With “Nobody Got Cereal?”, the show definitely erred on the side of the former. That’s probably for the best, though it’s just as well the writers didn’t try to stretch this one out to three episodes.

The basic ingredients this week were more or less identical to last week’s stellar “Time to Get Cereal” - everybody ripping on Al Gore, ManBearPig as a metaphor for the looming threat of climate change, Red Dead Redemption 2 as the town’s current distraction of choice, etc. Given how little this episode strayed off the beaten path in that regard, it was inevitable that the novelty would wear off sooner or later. That sense of familiarity prevented “Nobody Got Cereal?” from reaching the heights of its predecessor.

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DC's Best Comic Ends on a Fitting Note

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It's hard not to approach the twelfth and final chapter of Tom King and Mitch Gerads' Mister Miracle without a fair amount of trepidation and sadness. Not just because this issue marks the end of what has quite possible been DC's most consistently great comic over the past year-ish, but also because we're finally faced with the ultimate mystery of the series.

Is this story real? Has this massive war between light and dark gods actually been happening? Is Scott Free hallucinating some sort of alternate life as he bleeds out after failing to escape death? Is this all some fractured reality generated by the Anti-Life Equation? At some point it's difficult to picture a truly satisfying answer to these questions. And so it's only fitting that King and Gerads' answer boils down to "It doesn't really matter."

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Warframe Review

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There aren’t many games that make me feel as cool as Warframe does when I’m bullet-jumping through the air at breakneck speeds. While this free-to-play co-op shooter has wildly outgrown its original “space ninja” reputation since it first game out in 2013 – adding open-world areas, deep story missions, and even a hoverboard with a Tony Hawk-style scoring system – it’s the way it makes everything you do feel fast, powerful, and just plain awesome that keeps me coming back to its almost-endless well of loot.

Warframe is a dense game – a tangled ball of yarn made up of almost six years of updates, additions, system reworks, and content drops. Its different bits and pieces overlap and twist together in a way that can make it overwhelming to even think about trying to untangle it all, but it also means that there’s an almost inconceivable amount of deep and often extremely entertaining content to discover once you do.

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Uncanny X-Men #1 Doesn't Live Up to Its Name

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The past 18 months have marked a rare period in Marvel's history where there's been no ongoing Uncanny X-Men comics. Sure, there have been plenty of other X-books during that time, but no clear contender for the flagship book of the line. Therein lies the appeal of the newest volume of Uncanny X-Men. Not only does it just feel right to have Uncanny as a regular part of the Marvel lineup, it'll be nice to have the franchise re-center itself around one book and one central conflict. That was the hope, anyway. Judging from the first issue, Uncanny X-Men won't be the cure-all solution this franchise has been needing.

With this relaunch, Marvel is basically applying the Avengers: No Surrender formula to the X-Men line, bringing together multiple writers for one weekly epic. That story in this case is called "X-Men Disassembled," an obvious nod to 2004's status quo-shattering "Avengers Disassembled" storyline. The hope is that this new series will have a similar impact on the X-Men, providing a fresh jumping-on point, an exciting new mutant conflict and a general quality boost for a franchise that's been all over the place for the past four years.

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The Avengers #10 Teases a Thrilling Future for Earth's Mightiest Heroes

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Marvel is taking a surprisingly subdued approach to the release of The Avengers #10. This issue also happens to be the 700th Avengers comic overall. But rather than officially renumbering the series yet again or drawing in all sorts of guest creative teams to celebrate the franchise's long history, this issue simply focuses on the road ahead. It's impossible not to be excited for the future of the franchise after reading this issue.

One of the great things about Aaron's Avengers run is that it taps into elements that fueled two of the best Avengers runs of the 21st Century - Brian Bendis' original New Avengers and Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's The Ultimates. You can see the former in this small, eclectic band of heroes Aaron has assembled for this new incarnation of the Avengers. It's a an enjoyable blend of traditional favorites and unusual picks, with the end result being a fun and slightly dysfunctional team dynamic. It's not everyday you see Thor turning to Captain Marvel for help in his middle school-level relationship with Hulk.

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