“Dot and Bubble” is a strange story to review. It starts off as a very on-the-nose look at modern society’s reliance on mobile phones and social media and then towards the end turns the spotlight on a much nastier and longer-lasting aspect of society instead in a really great last 10 minutes. Can the latter make up for the rest? Let’s take a look!
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When the chance to review a preview screening of a Chinese animated film came along I said… “Why not I guess!” Turns out thought that it was quite the visual treat. You can find my review by clicking HERE.
The third and final part of the Eighth Doctor “Echoes” boxset started off really good, it has an interesting world with a unique hook to it that I was interested in seeing how it played out, but sadly the ending was such a non-event that it kind of took all the wind out of my sails… Let’s take a look!
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The High Republic Phase III continues on, though admittedly much slower than the previous two phases (the wait for the next main book has felt like forever!) and with that comes “Shadows of Starlight”, a four issue comic series that basically fills in the gaps between the end of Phase I and “The Eye of Darkness”, the first book of Phase III (for those not in the know Phase II took place in the past…) It does manage this in a mostly satisfying way, even if reading it after reading the book meant a lot of the gaps had already been filled in by my mind’s eye anyway… Let’s take a look!
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As the end credits rolled on “73 Yards” all I could think was “this was written by the same guy who wrote Space Babies…?” Yes, this episode is something of a marvel, a really great and creepy story that is also one of RTD’s beloved “Doctor-lite” episodes he used to do. This season of Doctor Who is on a hell of a hot streak now, it makes me even more confused about what episode they chose to open it with! Let’s take a look…
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The next batch of older anime reviews was originally just going to be me finally re-watching and reviewing the original Evangelion series / film but between me planning that and now Hideaki Anno’s prior work, Gunbuster, was released on Blu-Ray here in the UK so I thought, why not? When it popped up in a recent Super Robot Wars game that featured the series I thought how some of the character designs were familiar but I didn’t remember much of anything else, so I assume it was one of those anime that aired in the late 90s / early 00s on the Sci-Fi channel that I watched but never recorded / rewatched, so I was looking forward to this! Was I right to look forward to it? Well…
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The latest Eighth Doctor audio boxset has arrived and its title of “Echoes” seems to be a reference to the fact that these two stories feel awfully similar to other Eight/Liv/Helen stories in the recent past. They’re both well written, don’t get me wrong, but I couldn’t shake a sense of… I don’t know, I don’t want to saw “boredom” because again, they’re good stories, but maybe “sameness” is the right word. Not just Doctor Who stories (obviously!) but other Helen and Liv stories specifically hitting some very familiar beats to the ones here. Well, let’s take a look anyway!
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Going into my first ever play through of the Kingdom Hearts series I was warned about Chain of Memories and its remake, how even some of the biggest die hard fans of the series seem to flat-out hate it, well the gameplay at least. I thought to myself “well, I want to complete all of them for this review series, so I guess I’ll just grin and bear it” but, man… hate to say it, but I’m going to have to join the many and say I really disliked the gameplay here. I was just going to play the Re:CoM edition but struggled so I heard the GBA original was easier, and it was… to a point, but the core gameplay is just badly designed. I’m sure some who played it when they were young and “forced” themselves to get good at it because it was finally new Kingdom Hearts game will get angry at my review, but for me, now in 2024? This is not a fun experience…
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“Boom” is a fine example of Steve Moffatt just telling a great self-contained story, like he most famously did during Russell T. Davies’ original run, though he did have the odd classic as show runner. The Doctor steps on a landmine and the entire 40-odd minute story takes place around him as he tries to get out of the predicament. Simple sounding story but actually a brilliant showcase of tension as a storytelling tool. Let’s take a look!
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What can I say about X-Men ’97? “Wow” comes to mind, frankly. When it was announced I assumed it would just be a fun nostalgia cash-in, and that was fine (hell it got me to re-watch the whole original show and review it here on the site!) but what I got instead was the cast of the original show pushed forward into not just a show with modern visuals and flare but also one with a far more serious tone that wasn’t afraid to shy away from the more extreme look at the themes from the show / comics and throw in the odd bit of bloody violence or other more “not very 90s cartoon-y” bits, yet also made sure to still have some fun with the dialogue and kept the cheesy stories and costumes from the source material. It’s both a nostalgic sequel to a beloved show and a very modern adaptation of some great X-Men comic storylines. To say it overachieved would be an understatement! Let’s take a look.
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Hogan Reviews 