Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

Darkman was a movie that probably didn't need a sequel or it did. Perhaps one notorious example of a bad sequel is actually Darkman II: Return of Durant or is it? I think it had potential but as a direct to home video sequel -- it just is typically is. Remember when Disney didn't give sequels in the movies and sent them straight at home? I find it the same way that The Return of Jafar just lacks the charm of the budget Aladdin film or Lion King II: Simba's Pride may be good it just can't beat The Lion King in any shape or form. The same can be true for this movie where Durant returns as the main antagonist. Remember how Durant was the secondary antagonist for the first film? He was a sadistic mob boss hired by Louis Strack Jr. to get the Bellasarious memorandum. He's the very reason why Peyton Westlake went from a mild-mannered scientist into the ever vengefully crazy Darkman. He's one sadistic MOFO you don't want to mess with this guy. Although he appea...

Darkman himself is not your typical superhero. I remembered being berated and asked which superhero wanted revenge as their motive. They say none but think about it that Conan the Barbarian wanted revenge on Thulsa Doom in the hit 1982 film. Darkman himself wants revenge on Robert G. Durant (his personal rival) and the latter's employer Louis Strack Jr. for ruining his life's work. What I thought about Darkman is how he deviates away from typical heroism since he's in an R18 movie. Conan grew up in a life of slavery. Darkman's normal life was taken away from him causing him to go from mild-mannered Peyton Westlake into his dark alter-ego known as the Darkman. Strack and Durant are both bullies one can relate in real life. Strack thinks that he can get away with everything he does because he's not just rich but he's really super-rich. Durant forms dirty alliances with rich people (such as Strack) and uses thug force brutality to get what he wants. Many of Dur...

Nobody can deny that Transformers and its sequel series Beast Wars (which takes place 300 years after the original ended but they got stranded on pre-historic Earth) are both successes. But for every successful franchise -- there's the tendency for a black sheep or flak to appear. Do you remember how the highly successful Kamen Rider Black got succeeded by the failure that's Kamen Rider Black RX? Beast Wars was succeeded by Beast Machines which really didn't last after 26 episodes. Beast Wars had 52 episodes which proved it was a success. Beast Machines tried to ride on the success of Hasbro's Beast Wars but only resulted in how Black RX ended -- a failure! I may not be a fan of Transformers Season 3 but at least Season 3 had some development you can enjoy. I know I've hated (to a certain extent) how Galvatron went all the way from a scary, cunning leader from the movie to a greater idiot than Starscream ever was. However, Galvatron's insanity made him more i...

Transformers is a series dear to a lot of 80s to 90s children. Having been born in the 1990s meant I've watched a lot of them. There were Transformers Season 1 and Season 2 followed up by the controversial Season 3. So what are these  Transformers Season 3 Transformers Season 3 was a continuation of the movie. It's a rather daring departure. Remember when the death of Optimus Prime caused children to cry? I admit I cried THAT HARD when I saw Transformers: The Movie on Philippine television when I was only a child. It was a really, really hard thing to take. But I was told that heroes die and it was a war. It's a very realistic scene though there's also the controversial and perhaps rather UNFAIR   hatred for Hotrod -- not especially when he became Rodimus Prime! Rodimus' doubts as a leader are because he didn't want to become one. Yet he had plenty of interesting character development.  IMHO, I thought that Transformers Season 3 had some intere...

I was a fan of Transformers as a kid. I remembered watching Season 1, Season 2, The Movie, and then there came Season 3. Who can remember the five-part mini-series called the Five Faces of Darkness? The animation was no longer vibrant, it was what you'd call the mistake that many animated series commit later with inferior artwork. Yet, there was an interesting exposition with the mini-series which still made it an interesting watch. But, I'd like to share the whole nightmare fuel associated with the series. I always found the Quintessons (who had become the titular villains for this five-part arc) to be pretty scary. There were the Sharkticons and the brutal culture of the Quintessons. The mock trials in the movie were enough to make me cringe. What makes it interesting was that the Quintessons were overthrown out of Cybertron by the first Transformers. They were, in fact, responsible, for the rise of the Transformers race to start with. Talk about the similarity of Cobra-L...

Street Fighter has been one of my favorite game franchises which caused me to question why Capcom gave us the extremely broken Street Fighter V. There was Street Fighter II series which had extremely broken A.I. at the arcade. I did manage to play through Street Fighter II series on the Playstation One though I enjoyed the Street Fighter Alpha series better. Then there's Street Fighter IV series which is basically a miles upgrade of Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Remember whenever you fought a new opponent that the plane flew between countries or you moved from one country to another in most entries? Take for example that I'm using Ryu (my favorite Street Fighter character) and I am fighting different opponents. The first opponent is Chun Li then I defeat her, then I must fly to Russia to fight Zangief, then I must fly back to Japan to fight E. Honda. Isn't that a lot of money spent right there? Not to mention both Street Fighter II series and Street Fighter IV serie...

While The Lion King isn't exactly a copy of Jungle Emperor Leo (and we know, inspiration begets inspiration) -- you can't deny that both shows are well-loved franchises that defy logic in several levels. I can't decide which is weirder between The Lion King and Jungle Emperor Leo with that logic defiance. Both of them have plenty of WTF logic considering that you've got talking animals who act and feel like human beings. I can't even decide which is dumber between Simba eating bugs and Kimba trying to become a herbivore. There are many similar characters in both well-loved franchises -- yet there are differences too. Kimba is trying to act grown-up for a lion cub while Simba is your typical child who matures into a great king. Scar is Simba's uncle while Claw isn't related to Leo or better known as Kimba in the west.  What's so weird about both shows? The lion is the king of the jungle. In real life, the lion eats other animals. Remember the who...