Reviews

Ok, I'll be honest here. This show is competently put together, but that's the best thing I can say about it. Being a big fan of AVGN, when I heard about this infamous copycat series, I decided to check it out for myself. Chris Bore tries really hard to review these games in an angry nerd manner, but he just doesn't cut the mustard. Here's the problem. 1) His voice is really annoying and he can't act to save his life. I've never seen anyone who can act "angry" so poorly. Plus, as many other people have said, he copy/pastes the nerd so often, it's pitiful. 2) He doesn't research properly. Guys, if you are going to research something, it takes longer than a 15 second google query. Also, his script writing is piss poor. He doesn't apparently know that a "predecessor" means something that came first, not afterward. 3) He has annoying supporting characters that seem unnecessary. To be fair, James has done this before also, which is why I think the reviews are better when he's alone. But at least James is funny, this is more than can be said for Chris. 4) Ultimately, there is nothing here that makes Chris stand out from the pack. It's the same low budget tripe that has become so common on YouTube. But at least James Rolfe has charm. Chris is just a bore. I know I'm reiterating what everyone has said, but it's the truth. What more can you really add? He just needs to be more original. If AVGN is Transformers, he is Go Bots.

Now in all honesty, his work does seem to be at the very least fairly well put together, the problem is just that he needs to do his own thing. Chris needs to find his own voice/identity and only then will he possibly get his name out. But he has to earn it, not by piggybacking off another internet reviewers' popularity. I give it 5 stars out of 10 for effort, and that's being generous.

Independence Day(or ID4 as it shorted to) was a huge sci-fi blockbuster released in 1996. Essentially a modern remake of H.G. Wells War of the Worlds, this movie involves the ultimate alien confrontation as massive alien warships show up all over the world, and engage in a coordinated attack that leaves human kind in ruins. Soon, a determined group of survivors all over the world put their differences aside to retaliate against the invaders, thus making Independence Day not just a holiday for America, but for all people. Updating mankind's savior from cold virus to computer virus, and including scenes from the urban legends about area 51, and containing dogfight scenes borrowed heavily from Star Wars, it was panned by some critics for bankruptcy of ideas. True, ID4 is not the most original film, but it's still a lot of fun, featuring a stirring soundtrack by David Arnold, ground breaking special effects, Will Smith's motion picture debut, and contains a good message about all mankind standing as 1 people, making it one of the last sci-fi movies to touch on that topic since The Day the Earth Stood Still. This film is not particularly intellectual, but for a Hollywood popcorn flick, it's one of the best the mid 1990s had to offer. I love it, and if that's a bad thing, then so be it. Followed 20 years later by Independence Day resurgence, but it failed to duplicate the success of the original.

This sequel to the 1996 alien invasion film is admittedly full of problems, but I actually enjoyed it. Keep in mind the original ID4 was far from original itself, being essentially a big budget modern remake of War of the Worlds, full of cheesy one-liners, big boisterous special effects, and cringe-worthy acting, but it was fun nevertheless. This time around, the fight is decidedly less one sided, as humanity has reverse engineered the alien technology to use as defense. Also, the special effects didn't quite knock my socks off as much as the original, as I saw the first film when it first came out when I was in high school. But it was still entertaining. The film is definitely watchable, even without Will Smith. Plus, it set it up for a 3rd film, which will feature us going to attack them, with the help of other races. That might be neat to see. Overall, not must see by any means, but ok.

Invader Zim was a show that started in the early 2000s, lasted one season and Nickelodeon, was cancelled, and developed a ridiculously overblown cult fan base amongst a certain ilk of "edgy" millennials who continue to sing the praises of this show 20 years later. Let me be honest here: I don't hate this show, it's more of an annoyance about the fact that people to this day swear-with absolute sincerity-that this is the greatest Nick Toon of all time. People are entitled to their opinions, but I respectfully disagree. I watched the first episode of the show when it first came out, and it was....okay. Nothing really special, it was different. But then in no time at all, the show became fixated with being gross, disturbing, and flat out stupid. Allow me to elaborate.

Invader Zim was supposed to hold a critical eye to society, and make us question who the people we encountered on a daily basis were who the said they were. Suffice it to say, Invader Zim attended a human school and disguised himself with a toupee. That's all. Only 1 student at the school can see his ruse. I get it, it's supposed to be funny because it's such an obvious disguise. They've had jokes like this on Looney Tunes and SNL decades prior to Zim. But that's not the worst part of the show. Not even close. Invader Zim also popularized the concept of "scream talking", where a character constantly screams his lines. I'm sorry, but screaming a line doesn't automatically make it funnier. Plus, I don't understand why people cite this show as being so well written when a lot of his dialogue is composed of "Piggy!" and "Waffles!", and so on. Invader Zim's artstyle doesn't appeal to me either, in particular the backgrounds are almost entirely made up of ugly green and brown colors. The characters are drawn in that sort of butch hartman style so prolific in the 1990s, where everyone is drawn with french curves, and T-squares and the like. I just dispise that sort of thing, and I know that it's all subjective, but I just think it looks cheap. Invader Zim was praised for pushing the envelope of what was considered acceptable content for a children's show, but my question is, why is that automatically a good thing? Just because you push the boundaries doesn't make a show good. Zim's most controversial moment was on the episode "Dark Harvest" which involved Zim stealing people's organs and replacing them with other objects, like clocks and so forth, to pass off as "healthy". Another episode involved Zim growing a huge zit on his face that when the pus was sloshed around inside the semi-transparent blemish, it had the ability to hypnotize people into doing whatever he wanted, which of course predictably culminated in it popping and dousing everyone with ample amounts of pus. Do you see what I mean when I say this show was disgusting? I can hear people online groaning already. "If you don't like it, don't watch it!" They grumble. Well, if I don't like it, accept that and get off my back. Zim's fan base seems to be composed largely of opinionated elitist snobs with hair trigger tempers who threaten you with retribution for hating this show. I'm not kidding, an artist online drew a picture with Invader Zim getting an anvil dropped on his head, and a fan said he hated his guts and wanted to bomb his house. Look, if you like this show, that's fine. I stated my reasoning for disliking this show, and at least I was honest. I just wanted to provide a different view, as this show gets enough praise as it is.