The Surlaw Reviews - 1/2/23 - 2022 Year in Review

msw188 · Post by **msw188** » Sat Aug 20, 2016 6:33 pm

Gonna change the subject completely. I went and watched the new stop-animation movie Kubo of the Two Strings (or something along those lines) pretty much on a whim last night. Folks, if you ever wanted to watch one of those late80s/early90s Enix JRPG plots in movie format, this is basically it, and it's awesome. Plus the animation is just gorgeous, for the most part. I was sad that we went in on a Friday evening (730 showing) and it was basically an empty theater.

Captain Sulu is one of the voice actors I think! I'm not sure which one though.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Sat Aug 20, 2016 7:29 pm

Hoping to see it tomorrow! I loved Coraline but I haven't seen Laika's other movies. Really glad someone is still putting out big budget stop motion.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Mon Aug 22, 2016 3:49 am

Kubo was great! The only weak bits were the jokes, which almost all fell super flat. The spiritual aspects were great, animation was amazing, ending was great. Maybe a full review later, but for now, some random stuff:

The film is about learning to accept loss through the lens of Shintoism, but the exact faith doesn't really matter, it's universally human. You can read all of the fantastical scenes in the quest as a meditation on life and death as Kubo sits in prayer at the makeshift shrine, coming to terms with his own mortality and a loss of purpose without his mother.

Symbols/totems become literal characters and the final conflict is not a world threatening disaster, but rather a personal conflict between Kubo closing his eyes to the pain in the world or choosing to face it head on. It would have been very easy to make this film end with pure dumb spectacle, and instead it chose to go out on a message of forgiving an absentee family member for abandoning a family in need. The grandfather's actions are not absolved, but Kubo chooses forgiveness in the face of monstrous anger. That's awesome. Movie's great, even if the jokes are almost all bad.

It's basically a more straight-forward, family friendly version of The Fountain.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Sat Sep 03, 2016 3:51 am

Hyper Light Drifter

I didn't write a single review in August! Whoops. Here's a game with frogs and swords that I wish I'd liked more.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Wed Sep 14, 2016 11:04 pm

Kholat

A review in which I play a ghost game and don't get very spooked.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Tue Sep 27, 2016 8:57 pm

Pac-Man Championship Edition 2

New Pac-Man: It's not quite as good as Championship Edition DX, but it's solid nonetheless.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Sat Jan 07, 2017 2:00 am

Eh yo, I'm alive again. Work's been nuts and I'm having a daughter any day soon!! Anyway, if anyone wants to talk about stuff they liked this year let's do that. Here's my thoughts on 2016's movies, I'll write my game thing later: http://bobsurlaw.blogspot.com/2017/01/e ... -2016.html

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Sat Jan 07, 2017 2:31 am

Congratulations! Yay for your daughter! :)

Spoonweaver · Post by **Spoonweaver** » Sat Jan 07, 2017 5:20 am

Gratz on getting a daughter soon!
Did you already have any kids or is this your first.

On a related topic, I can't wait for OHR: The Next Generation.
I hear it's vastly superior to the original.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Sat Jan 07, 2017 9:08 pm

Thanks bros, this is #1. Lots of hype!!

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Sun Jan 15, 2017 9:37 pm

Birth went well! We were in the hospital longer than expected and there were a few complications but everything's all good now. While we were sitting around I wrote about games I played this year.

2016 in Games

Post by **TMC** » Mon Jan 16, 2017 3:07 am

Oh, wow. Congratulations! It's a big day! I hope the three of you recover quickly.

Ah, all the game news of 2016 condensed into one paragraph, how handy! Interesting how I've heard of absolutely none of it aside from Pokemon Go; I really am out of it.

Spoonweaver · Post by **Spoonweaver** » Mon Jan 16, 2017 3:42 am

Hurrah Babies! Good to hear you got past whatever complications happened. I can relate there.

Welcome to father-hood.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Fri Feb 03, 2017 2:01 am

Life's slowly getting back to normal but man I could use some sleep.

Anyway, here's all this stuff about music from 2016. I missed a ton of stuff this year. 2016 in Music

There's even a handy YouTube playlist to listen to tracks form (almost) everything!

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Thu Mar 09, 2017 2:34 am

More baby talk: My wife wrote a guest article about Eraserhead and being new parents.