coreyjdenford

Wow. Just wow. A turn based western RPG that's better than many JRPGs is hard to come by, usually they end up being forgotten in the stream of games. But here comes this game in 2025, just 2 years after Balder's Gate 3 another Turn based RPG claimed the Game of the Year and only a few months after Larian's head honcho quoted about this year's possible Game of the Year winner. Is this it? Well Sandfall Interactive's debut game is an absolute corker with a beautiful story, wonderful characters, clean wit that actually lands and a soundtrack so good that it'll make you want to blast it out on 2500 watt subwoofers for all 8 hours (I'm in). The gameplay is beautiful, gloriously melting together turn based and action mechanics with clever parry, dodge and jumping mechanics mid combat. A story so beautiful you'll need the tissues after the first 30 minutes. What else can I say without spoiling it? Highly recommended.

2019's The Platform was a corker, stirring through the constant barrage of average summer actioners to become a Netflix smash for several weeks. Many stating that it was a tense dystopian sci-fi about the brutality of law and how surviving on tiny morsels of food can be the difference between life and death. It will always be remembered for its potent story, gory themes, dark tones and the strength of human willpower. When Netflix and director Galder Gaztelu Urrutia announced a follow-up many were stating if it would live up to the original, some saying that it didn't need one (some films don't). But The Platform had such an interesting concept it would be enticing to see where a sequel could go - a hopeful escape - a brutal downturn of the authority that put them people there, and would the food actually make it to the bottom?

Enter The Platform 2 - continuing that gripping story, the tense atmosphere and the brutality of human surviv...nope. No such luck here, only one of those things is on show here. The former is a brilliantly made portrayal of human survival, slowly cascading through the psyche of the human mind and kicking in the will to survive once the main source we need is gone. Descending through the walls of this monstrous pit of torture. The story's main focus is on Perèmpuan (Milena Smit) a new resident in the pit who has one item of food that she asked for, a love of ham and croquettes. And she's bamboozled by tales of new cellmate, the food distribution and finally a merciless anarchic leader who sees himself as some kind of messiah, who's there to check if cellmates listen to the rules. Chaos ensues as an uprising of a prisoner revolution stirs through the pit walls in attempt to overthrow the leader. Unlike the brilliant original, The Platform 2 tries it's best to be as taught and gripping but fails thanks to awful story structure, and terrible direction. It's clear that within the first half hour it's apparent that this return by director Galder Gaztelu Urrutia is a grave error as it descends into a delirious sludge of colour gels.

The story touches on religious iconography with a mysterious blind cult leader who with his follows makes sure that everyone is doing as they're told. That goes about as well as it sounds, brutality ensues even going as far to go through the cannibalism and slasher film territory turning into a rehash of Cannibal Holocaust mixed with a bit of Friday the 13th (no that doesn't make sense, go with it). It doesn't help any further when there are hanfisted callbacks to the original which will make you scratch your head in confusion. The change in the plot isn't half as interesting or at all interesting as the basic premise of the plot of the original. So, it's a rehash, but then not, but also, yes. Confused? That's how you're supposed to feel. No claps of adulation here, nope, just birds spinning around your head like you've woken up from a coma.

Albeit, it's not entirely dull, as Milena Smit does her best to give a convincing performance, feeling the emotion of other cellmates and wasting away to almost nothing when the food runs out. But it doesn't expand on the original plot line or even the ideas of the original. Instead just harshly rewrites them from a different perspective. If you're hoping for some loose ends to tied off here, then you've come to the wrong place. The Platform 2 just showcases that not every film needs a sequel, much like The Descent 2 before it, it should have stayed as a solo act, just like Robbie Williams when he left Take That. 2/5.

It's not the first time Disney and Pixar have dived firmly into a culturally expansive community - or world, with last year's Encanto being set in Columbia and now Turning Red, being set around one Chinese family in Canada...okay so a lot smaller in scale than Columbia. But that doesn't mean Turning Red doesn't deliver. The film centres itself on pint sized protagonist, 13 year old Meilin Lee, a confident, dorky and often loud spoken teenager who tries her hardest to fight for her perfectionist mother's approval with good grades, perfect attendance and her attitude to always be the good girl. Yet inside she has a big fluffy secret, when her life changes, in more ways than one, her interests, relationships, and whenever she gets too excited, she turns into a big fluffy admittedly very cute red panda. If only puberty was as fluffy and cute for all of us.

Onto the matter at hand, Turning Red - like most Pixar films is a stunningly animated, clever and often funny family comedy, that again like Disney's latest trends is extremely relatable - and not just the puberty bit. We all yearn to be outspoken, and the film isn't afraid to come to terms with that. The film is clever as already pointed out, not so much in it's script, in fact that's the aspect that isn't so clever. But the theming of a dorky and if a little wired teenage girl who just wants to be normal, she has her rambunctious friends for help in that department as they are just as loud and confident as she is. But then that just shows storytelling grandeur that with her friends it's a heartwarming often empowering tale of girl power that is a wonderfully vibrant ode to those awkward pre-teen and teen years. And it's not the first time Disney have peaked highly in that region, but indeed when there's success sometimes there is failure, or in this case script problems. Where the script fails, the film finds itself searching for material, but don't let that put you off.

Turning Red is a bright, shimmering and often funny empowering tale that combines humour and relatable storytelling in beautifully animated fashion and yet again extends Pixar's already long list of deft heart and family friendly films that will remain with you for a long time. Even through the craziness and messiness of puberty, but then all of us want puberty to be just as fluffy, bright and cute as this film shows. 4/5.