What An Awesome Night To Have A Curse: Castlevania Review

By Luiggi Cavanna

Not long ago, I wrote a blog about anime live action adaptations, you should check it out if you haven’t, but you know who has it worst? Video games to, well, anything! This video game curse is well known but we might’ve broken that curse thanks to the new Netflix animated series Castlevania.

Castlevania, for all of you that didn’t have a childhood, is a series of games from Konami starring a lineage of vampire hunters known as the Belmont clan and their battle against the lord of darkness himself, Dracula, throughout different time periods.

There are a lot of Belmonts….. Is that JoJo reference?

There are a lot of games, Belmonts and time periods to choose from, ranging from 1094 up to 2036. That’s not counting the rebooted timeline, Lord of Shadows, or how I love to call it, “the timeline I don’t give two craps about! The Netflix original takes place during the events of Castlevania 3 Dracula’s Curse.

A trip to Dracula’s hometown!? OH BOY!

To me, it is the perfect place to start. Chronologically, Castlevania 3 is the first time that Dracula decided to unleash his evil on humanity, and it was the first time he faced a Belmont in combat. The Netflix original is tremendously faithful to the source material, despite Castlevania 3 being a Nintendo game without too much of a story, but they managed to pull elements from other games in the series.

Like Dracula’s motivations for his hate of humans.

For example, the death of Liza, the catalyzer for Dracula's rampage, was pulled out straight out of Castlevania Symphony of the Night.

The only difference is that we get to see the whole gruesome scene.

If you are a fan of the series, you will be delighted with all the references and attention to details in the show.

I mean, look at this!!

Castlevania, to set the story in motion, did something interesting and dedicated the first episode to introduce Dracula. It fleshes out Dracula's motivations for what he's doing against humanity, and it made us sympathize with him. Given the situation, most of us will say “Yeah! Kill the bastards”, but at the same time the episode does a great job showing us the consequences of Dracula's wrath, with the mutilation of the Innocents, children and babies alike, and it makes us think “This is too much”. 

You would be pissed too.

This was a fantastic episode, and it gave us a great villain, one that doesn’t do evil for evil’s sake but because of the pain that humanity caused him. Also, it introduces our second antagonist, the church. The Bishop of Gresit is indisputably responsible for what has befallen upon the land thanks to his thirst for power. In his quest to cleanse the land of unholy things he burned the wrong person at the stake. Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, he promptly found scapegoats to pinpoint the blame, like the speakers, I will talk about them later, and the Belmont family

.

This guy!

The following episodes are dedicated to introduce our heroes and to set the events of the next season in motion. Trevor Belmont is our reluctant hero, he spends most of his time just trying to get drunk, trying to forget how his family has been treated despite their service against the forces of darkness, but at the end, he can’t let the suffering continue and accepts the call.

And he just got kicked in the balls

Sypha Belnades, a spellcaster, and granddaughter of the elder of the speakers, who are a group of nomad scholars that only pass their knowledge through oral stories. Finally, Adrian Tepes, also known as Alucard. The son of Dracula that wishes to protect humanity to honor his mother's memories.

Hmm.. something is missing...

 The fight choreographies are excellent and the fact that they recreated fights from an eight-bit game and they managed to adapt them to animation so well show the love they have for the franchise.

Bullseye!!

In the game after fighting a cyclops, you free Sypha from a statue, and that is recreated perfectly here. Before Alucard joins your party you had beat him in a boss fight. If there’s anything that fans love it is when their adaptations are faithful to the source material! This is a video game adaptation, and even though they took some liberties with the story, they gave us what we always wanted.

Alucard literally uses moves from the Symphony of the night in this fight.

I can spend days nerdgasm-ing over the series, but it does have some flaws, but all of my complaints bring me to one point. The fact that we only see Dracula for one episode or that we don’t see much of his relationship with his wife before the tragic events of the series. The lack of character development for Alucard. The fact we haven’t talked about the legendary whip the “Vampire Killer”, and missing characters from the game like Grant. All of these complaints come down to time, the first season if you wanna call it that, is only four episode long!

Hello, there magic user! I guess I don’t need this silly wall climbing pirate anymore.

This show will leave you wanting more and with a bunch of unanswered questions and that’s not good. Fear not my friends because a second season has been announced and let's just hope that it meets the expectation that this first “season” left us with.

Four episodes though!?

Well, there is one complaint that doesn’t relate to the length of the series and that’s the music. Castlevania is known for its amazing soundtrack and you mean to tell me you couldn’t get a single classic in this show? Come on man! Despite those shortcomings, the series was enjoyable, and if you're a fan of Castlevania this show is just going to be awesome for you! So what were your thoughts on Netflix’s Castlevania series? Let us know. Now I return to the deepest darkest corners of my dwelling. Goodbye, for now, my friends.

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Valerian and the city of 1000 planets(A Salty Review)

By Corey Floyd

This summer we have been hit with a lot of movies as usual. But one of them I had so many questions about. This movie was Valerian. It’s based off a graphic novel. The film was written and directed by Luc Besson the mind behind The Fifth Element, Taken series and Transporter series. With a stellar trailer with beautiful visuals, you would think this was a cinematic slam dunk right?  

While this film is very heavy with beautiful CGI visuals that tell a narrative without words when the main actors step they drag this film from the depths of space to a crappy SYFY movie. Our main character  Major Valerian is played by Dane DeHaan. Most people should remember him from The Amazing Spider Man 2 as Harry Osborn and Andrew Detmer from the hit film Chronicle.

His co star is Cara Delevingne. She was the woman who played the Enchantress in the universally panned but financially successful Suicide Squad.

I have a few problems with these two that affect this movie in a big way. Despite the actors being in their late 20’s to early 30’s, they look like kids.

I say this is an issue because they are supposed to be Intergalactic military agents.  But instead, they come off as spring breakers or impersonators of who the real heroes are. The chemistry they have on screen is nonexistent. All of the dialogue between them is forced. It's like a really bad version of Lana and Archer.There bland, unbelievable and boring.  

The story is not bad at all. The city of 1000 planets is based off the idea that in 2020 earth establishes a  International space station then there's a montage other nations coming to the station over the years adding their own piece the the larger whole.Then Aliens began to make contact and continue the tradition, a few hundred years later you have a city of 1000 planets.  This movie has a lot of layers to it that you would want to explore. The overall writing wasn't terrible. Those 2 actors mess this whole movie up.

Now I was surprised at Rihanna's performance in this film. Of course she was visually appealing but her acting has improved alot since BATTLESHIP (Shudders ). Here she plays Bubble who is a shapeshifting Alien. Who give a short yet compelling tale of woe about being a sex worker. She comes along for the adventure for about 15 minutes or so and she was one of the best performances in the film. The funny part is you cant tell when she is being serious or sarcastic but it works. They show her real form which is kind of a jellyfish. But she can move round like a T1000 she was a really good for the team. Then they kill her 15 minutes into meeting her. Somehow she dies from a fall that all three of them take. Which was a nice way of saying “we can’t afford you anymore”. SMH   

The rest of the is digestible at best but then again the terrible acting is vomit inducing.  In my opinion I think you can wait to see this on Netflix or if you want something better watch the Fifth Element so you can see how far we have fallen ( yes it takes place in the same universe as the Fifth element) . Furthermore I believe that the original was not told properly her so I will also implore you to check out the original graphic novels. Meanwhile as for his film would have been a B- but the acting from our two main characters drops it to a final Grade of D.  

Now don’t forget about our Destiny 2 giveaway so be sure to download our Amerime Junkies podcast and  check out  our youtube page where clues will be dropped.https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/amerime-junkies/id1212151606 https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Ivhcym644qixgfbgwxi346zsgiy http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/new-media-studios/amerime-junkies?refid=stpr

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Are you a Kid or a Squid? Splatoon 2!

Splatoon 2 is a game for the Nintendo Switch and sequel to the Wii U game. And I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

And it’s very colorful eh?

This game is a team based third person shooter that doesn’t follow the norms. Splatoon emphasizes the taking over of territory, with the use of ink, instead of just focusing in shooting the enemy team. Think of it as Jet Set Radio meets Unreal Tournament.

 It doesn’t mean that I won’t splat your face off if I see you!

I spent a lot of time on the first Splatoon and I’m glad that the franchise is back. As a Wii U game it wasn’t exposed to that many people thanks to the low sells of the system, but now with Splatoon 2 on the Switch, being a more successful console, the franchise is ready to splat all over the place (I’m going to say “Splat” a lot in this blog).

SPLAT!!

The first Splatoon was a great success, despite been on the Wii U, but also received a few complains. The main complain was that it was short in content, but Nintendo had DLC plan for the game. Nintendo released new maps, weapons, and modes well after the game was released. This kept the game fresh and I was excited every time a new patch came out, and the best part of all of that, the DLC was free!

Splatoon 2 is coming out with more content than it’s predecessor, but it’s still going to follow the same format of free DLC, and they already showed some stuff that we should look forward to.

For example, this UMBRELLA!! 

Also Nintendo promised two years of Splatfest! What’s Splatfest? Well it is an event where the players have to pick a side and win battles for your team in order gain special rewards. For example, we just finished our first Splatfest, (yes! Before the game was release) and we had to pick between team cake or team Ice cream. The event is hosted by the local pop stars, which by the way they’re new this time around, don’t worry the squid sisters have move to the single player element of the game. By the way, the character design in this game is great! If anything I could say team ice cream won the popularity section of the contest just because it was Marina’s side, and we all know she’s best girl.

 That’s a smile that I have to protect!!

Speaking of the single player, Splatoon features a great Story mode that shows you the basics of the game and Splatoon 2 follows this trend. This time you can use different weapons in the maps and actually some of the elements from single player, like the sponges and ink rails, have found their way into the multiplayer in some returning maps from the previous game.

 Something we asked for the previous game.

It seems Splatoon 2 is upgrading everything! Splatoon had a manga in the CoroCoro magazine and now is going to have an anime that will be airing on CoroCoro’s youtube channel. When it comes to the Upgrades in the actual game, are they enough? I’ll say yes! If you take your time and take in all of the changes, the game is fresh enough to still be a blast for veterans of the series, and if you haven’t play the previous Splatoon, right now is a great time to jump into franchise. Nintendo has addressed most of the complains from the previous game, like how now you can play in Splatfest with your friends! Heck we’re even getting voice chat, something that a few people wanted really badly in the last game. Well, the voice chat is going to be part of Nintendo’s mobile app called Nintendo Switch Online.

 Very interesting age we’re living in

The app is not only for communication, you can also check your rank, buy items, invite friends to your game and check how much you have inked. Nintendo is really getting into the mobile thing isn’t it?

 Yeah, because I always wanted to know how much ink would it take to paint the pyramids of Giza.

Splatoon 2 releases on July 21. Are you excited as I am? Is this game a pass? Let us know. Now I return to the deepest darkest corners of my dwelling. Good-bye for now my friends. Also don't forget to check out our book on amazon!

↓↓

https://www.amazon.com/Bloody-Mary-Coven-Book-One-ebook/dp/B072KS5YY6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500585476&sr=8-1&keywords=bloody+mary+the+coven+book+one

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Casting Choices (WHO’S NEXT continued)

By Corey Floyd

It has been confirmed that Will Smith will be playing Genie in the live action adaptation of Aladdin. As much as I love Will Smith I’m not loving this casting choice. Which lead me back to the lab and had me thinking about who I would have as the Genie. I also began to think about who could play other characters as well especially since the DCEU is probably gonna keep rolling on.  So here are a few of my casting pics. If you haven’t seen any of these before checking it out here.

http://amerimemedia.blogspot.com/2017/03/whos-next-part-1.html

http://amerimemedia.blogspot.com/2017/05/whos-next-part-two.html

As I said earlier I’m not 100% on board with Will Smith as the genie. But I do have a solution.

Yes DJ KHALED. No, don’t close out this blog!!!! Hear me out if you have paid attention to this man you realize that he one of the funniest people out there. He’s energetic and handles himself great in all situations. His social media is hilarious and with his style and flair, he could make his own genie while Will Smith will automatically be in Robin’s shadow.

 

Next Up!! Virgil Hawkins aka Static Shock. This character made quite a few waves back in the day on Kids WB. He made a great appearance in the ill fated second season of Young Justice. With the CW fall lineup including Black Lighting I can help but feel Static will be behind the corner. So, of course, I have an idea or two.

My pick is Shameik Moore. Most of you should know him from the hit film DOPE and ill fated Netflix original The Get Down. I feel that he needs another chance to grace TV and after his energetic performance in The Get Down  that he could light up the screen as Virgil.

Ugh! Fine if he continues to give compelling performances like he gave in The Get Down as well he can make a good Static too.  If he could only stop Trolling.  

I’ve said this before but I am personally sick and tired of Arnold as the the Terminator. He has a good run I will not deny him that. After seeing Terminator Genisys it really is time for him to Hasta la vista. They had a better explanation on why he looked old than the actual plot of the film. By the way I hate Jai Courtney. But seriously he just doesn’t have it anymore. He doesn’t have that threatening look anymore, There’s no intimidation there he’s just too old it’s time to retire the T-800.  Meet the new

T-900.  Meet Brock Lesnar one of the most decorated fighters Heavyweight fighters in the world. He is currently the WWE champion.  He is also the perfect candidate for being a new Terminator. He doesn’t have to talk just look badass and kill. Look at this here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5SjD-KcSkE he already has guns down. James Cameron don’t you think it’s time for a upgrade? I certainly do. It’s time to take the series to

.

My last one for today would be DC’s Black Spider.  There has been several people who have the title but I’m covering Eric Needham. He’s a vigilante like Batman but he’s a killer. In the new 52 he’s actually a very competent assassin you use tactics similar to the league of shadows. Has not had many outings but he is very relevant in the new 52 a member of the suicide squad. Since the film had a more than modest take in the box office there will be a sequel despite “mixed” reviews. So naturally they need someone to fill in this live action character.

 

My suggestion is Michael Jai White. He’s already played a few characters before. Some my remember him as Spawn which is currently on Netflix. He also played Jax in the Mortal Kombat web series from Machinima. With his infamous Martial arts background I feel like he could be a shoo in for this character. He’s also a very funny guy, he is the man behind Black Dynamite so if they want humor from him in the movie he can do that as well.

That it from me this week . But i will give a honorable mention to Patrick Stewart who could have played a live action Adrian Toomes if the went went the original Vulture for Spiderman.. Don’t to download or podcasts and listen out for clues for our Destiny 2 giveaway as well subscribing to our youtube page. There will be giveaways coming up so i hope you paying attention.  See ya soon !!

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Comic Boss Interviews ~ Kiru Comics

Tell us about K.I.R.U Comics and what Kiru stands for?

Kiru comics is an independent brand that creates and promotes original, multicultural and socially responsible titles.

KIRU stands for Knowledge, Imagination, Responsibility, and Understanding... these are values we try to keep in mind in everything we do, each of our projects has some aspects of these 4 values in them.

I've become a fan of the Almier series tell us about that?

Ah I'm glad you like our work. Almier is a manga project that I've (Hameed Catel) been working on for a while; The Almier are a supernatural people with intentions to put their powers to political use and make the world a better place however they have to overcome a lot of obstacles to do so. It's a big story with multiple characters that takes readers on fantastical adventures around the world whilst at the same time acting as a reflection of our world. 

I wasn't sure how well it would be perceived by the people which is why I used the first season as a tester, to gauge the reception. It seems like people resonate more with Hakim's story so we'll probably focus a lot more on that going forwards.

What is an Almier?

An Almier is simply an individual with stronger than average will power; able to use the power of their soul (a.k.a the flame) to do incredible things. There are two general distinctions to the Almier, the realists who are able to enhance their physical attributes with the flame and the dreamers; who are able to do the unthinkable.

Tell me more about the main character Hakim? 

Hakim is a hyperactive young teenager of African descent living in London. He's mischievous and loves to be a clown but can also have very deep insights into simple things around him.  He gets dragged into this world of big decisions and bigger egos. I think people like him the most because he's quite relatable and although he is flawed in many ways, he has a good heart and tends to listen to it most of the time. 

What other characters should people look out for?

Well like I said, going forwards we will be focusing more on the London story line because that's what people seem to resonate more with. So in that respect look out for the characters such as  Sebastian, Michael Richardson (the bank hero), Dr. David and definitely watch out for the return of the mandem. 

You have a go fund me account for the second season what can we expect in the second season?

In the second season, you can expect a more action packed and character orientated story. Things will escalate a very quickly and you will see another side to Hakim, one that you haven't seen before. Also, we will be showing more of the other side meaning Dr. David and the Visionaries as well as Jospeh Reznick and his "Counter Strike Programme" initiative.

Hope I've answered the questions to your liking. If you need anything else, don't hesitate to get in touch.

regards

Hameed Catel (Founder) 

Admin Team

Kirucomics

http://www.kirucomics.co.uk/

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Spider-Man Review Vlog (more spoilers)

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Spider-man is HOME!! (review/ spoilers ahead)

By Corey Floyd

Spiderman Homecoming is the third reboot of this comic Icon.  The Amazing Spider-Man wasn’t a good enough run to continue so Sony thought “third time's the charm” but the MCU stepped in and said we want Spider-man too. That's when one of the most interesting deals was made. Spider-man gets to be part of the MCU and Spider-man movies get co-produced and financed by Marvel. This also meant it's time for another Spider-Man casting. This time they made the smartest move ever. They hired a teen to play a teen. United Kingdom actor Tom Holland is our friendly neighborhood Spider-man. He made his debut in Captain America: Civil War. With just about 15 minutes of screen time, he won over millions. But can he hold his own in a Spider-man movie? That’s where we find Spider-man: Homecoming, a continuation from the last time we saw him from Civil War.

This was a very different Spider- man this time around. It was a coming of age story about a boy who happened to have super powers. If you're old enough to remember John Hughes movies The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink etc it gives you a lot of those vibes they even make fun of it in the film by showing a scene from FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF. Great chemistry between all the kids in this film especially Ned played by Jacob Batalon. This kid is hilarious every time he’s on screen. The chemistry between Holland and Zendaya (MJ) are hilarious plus we get a different MJ that possesses something that Kirsten Dunst version didn’t ….a personality.  

The bad guy in this one is the Vulture. They took this character in a different direction from the comic but it was for the better. In the comic Adrian Toomes was a Bald old man who looked a lot like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons. He had a green flight outfit that gave him the power to steal youth from people and make himself younger. It was absurd then and it’s absurd now, instead, the backstory to this man is more relatable. Toomes who is played by Michael Keaton (The real BATMAN) who’s business was cleaning up New York of all the rubble from the Chitari invasion from The Avengers. Sadly he lost his job because Stark has created DAMAGE CONTROL a team who is in charge of handle all messes created by heroes and villains. Once again Stark makes a new enemy know Toomes becomes an illegal alien weapons manufacture. Michael Keaton's performance is just as relatable as it is menacing. There’s a scene where Toomes and Parker both realize that they know each other alias while in a car taking his daughter to the dance and it is tense moment can’t even laugh at it.    

Okay, let’s get real and talk about the difference between these guys. I decided to look at this a little differently. I looked at the world we lived in at the time of each Spider-man. In Sam Raimi’s Spider-man came out in May of 02. The climate in America was very different post 911. It was reflected in the movie as well. Spider-Man was very “Gung Ho” when it came to his response to action no time was taken to understand or even talk about the situation. Puch first asks questions later which was how a country responded at the time. But when you had a terrorist like the Green Goblin who literally held a trolley cart of kids hostage eliminating any redeemable qualities from the character. In the film, they even give a with us or against us stand on situations. Take a look at the reboot with Andrew Garfield that gave us a more negotiation style Spider-man.They also don’t bring up the poverty of the Parker family in this reboot. I  assume since it was a few years after the housing market collapse they choose not to reopen real world wounds. In both of Garfield's movie, we have bad guys who are somewhat relatable and have redeemable qualities. Dr. Conners just want to heal his hand, Electro wanted a friend, and the “goblin” wanted Spider-man's blood to help find a cure for a disease. Now in the new Spider-man, we have a new ideology that cannot be found in the either two and that is diversity and a larger world. In this world we have the MCU, Spider-Man is not the center of this universe.  That’s one of the main points of the movie. Every other film has been on a worldly scale and when we meet this new Spider-man he is just trying to figure out himself. That’s why we have a very diverse group of people in this movie based on a comic booked that was at one point was whiter than a rabbit in a snowstorm. The movie even plays with that concept when we see Peter going to pick up his date a black girl named Liz we never thought about the idea that her dad is The Vulture.   

RDJ gives more of the same Tony Stark we love but we also see him trying to be a mentor. We see that after the Civil War he takes things more seriously. He gives a great power , great responsibility but not in the same way that would be cheesy. Also, we see Happy Hogan return in this movie as well as a big surprise of Pepper Pots. This need to be a home run because If this movie does as well as I think it should maybe ……….just maybe Fox will reconsider the same deal offered to them some X-men and Fantastic Four. The Saltytruth of it all is this the movie wasn’t called homecoming because of the dance in the third act. It’s because Spider-man is Home with the MCU and we need to complete this reunion so get off ya buts and get to the theaters.

That’s enough out of me. Don’t forget to check out our Amerime Junkies podcast from wherever you listen to them from. Also, we will be giving away a copy of Destiny 2. How?! Well, be sure to follow us on all platforms and stay tuned.
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