Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. It has been an overstuffed week in shows and films on my end; in fact, I haven’t even yet finished writing up all the features I screened, having left myself the unenviable task of writing twelve film reflections just before compiling this piece. Alongside that, it’s been a week of catching up on One Piece, as we charged an Egghead refresher preceding the show’s triumphant return, and also breaking into Arcane’s apparently concluding second season. Plus there’s a whole new anime season premiering, and all these Godzilla films left to screen… things have been busy, but I have nonetheless emerged with my promised collection of reflections, here to nourish or at least distract with some ramblings on the wide world of cinema. Let’s get to it!
Tag Archives: Film
Spring 2025 – Week 1 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. We’re finally reaching some warmer spring days at this point, which means I can finally… well, mostly just stay inside and keep watching movies, while also feeling somewhat more guilty about doing so. I also watched through the entire Fishman Island abridged version that Toei have been airing in place of new One Piece, which left me with mixed feelings; there were certainly places where the original version could use tightening, but also essential moments and crucially paced sequences that were either excised or abridged to a deleterious extreme. Regardless, the viewing prompted me to finally write the Fishman Island thematic essay that I’ve been thinking about for ages, so you can all look forward to that coming sometime soon. In the meantime, let’s break down the week in films!
Winter 2025 – Week 13 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week saw me finishing up Persona 3 Reload, after first attempting and failing to finish the original game back in 2008 or so. I had a fine enough time with it on the whole, though in retrospect, it probably wasn’t a great idea to play this directly after Metaphor: Refantazio. Metaphor demonstrates Atlus’ powers at their current peak, polishing and innovating on Persona’s framework in both a mechanical and narrative sense; in contrast, 3 feels dated compared to its successors, its core loop less embellished with variations, its narrative wandering and poorly structured. Nonetheless, there’s a core appeal to Persona’s make friends->build Pokemon->make more friends->build stronger Pokemon loop that remains one of the most addictive compulsions in game design, and I did appreciate 3’s clarity of thematic focus, even if it was kinda lacking in the human element that made 4 and 5 so special. Also, movies! We ran down a pile of movies this week, so let’s get to those!
Winter 2025 – Week 12 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. With several of my house’s long-term streaming projects concluded, this week has seen us buried in kaiju features, as we storm through Godzilla’s sprawling cinematic canon. It’s been delightful seeing both the concept of a Godzilla film and the context of such films within Japan’s rapidly evolving society shift over the years, as the big guy transitions from an object of terror or warning of violent consequence to a beloved defender of earth and friend to the children. We’re basically watching a cinematic monster of the week series constructed across half a century, finding new things to appreciate in both the broad shifts and incremental adjustments of this titanic franchise. Let’s start with the big guy’s second appearance then, as we burn down this Week in Review!
Winter 2025 – Week 11 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today my apartment is undergoing some impromptu spring cleaning owing to last week’s house fire, the second house fire we’ve suffered in roughly eighteen months. Fortunately the damage wasn’t nearly so severe this time, and our landlord is paying for the service, so hey: free apartment cleaning! You gotta take the victories where you can find them in this world of apparently perpetual house fires, and for me those victories tend to come in the form of unexpected new media treasures, films or series that totally catch me by surprise. Let’s pan for gold once more as we break down the Week in Review!
Winter 2025 – Week 10 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome on back to Wrong Every Time. After a couple of weeks feeling under the weather, it appears both my health and the general temperature seem to be improving, leaving me prepped and ready to face a fresh new spring. It also seems to be a time for new beginnings as far as media projects are concerned; my house has recently completed Armored Trooper Votoms, Critical Role, Cobra Kai, and Ramayan, leaving my slate clean for some ambitious replacements. I’m currently still figuring out what classic anime I’d like to check out next, but in the meantime am also considering a journey through the Toei Godzilla films, having had such a good time recently with the productions of Ray Harryhausen. But for now, let us turn to the week’s screenings, and see what nutrients can be extracted from our latest film adventures. On to the Week in Review!
Winter 2025 – Week 9 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week has seen me diving into Persona 3 Reload, which has unfortunately provoked a swift and deleterious effect on basically every other aspect of my life. There’s just something about Persona’s mixture of pokemon fusions and schedule management that tickles all the right parts of my brain; somewhat ironic that a life planning sim tends to overwhelm my ability to plan my own life, but I suppose it’s always easier to hit a button that says “do your chores” than to actually friggin’ do them. Anyway, mentally I am in the halls of Tartarus right now, but my film review buffer is as well-stocked as ever, so our weekly reflections may continue without incident. Let’s burn down some feature films!
Winter 2025 – Week 8 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. I’m pretty sure this goddamn snow-stuffed winter has inflicted me with a recent head cold, so please appreciate my suffering as I tirelessly work to supply you good people with more of my meandering opinions. This week saw me reaching the end of Black Myth: Wukong, which I frankly feel a little ashamed about even finishing; the game is a fundamentally misguided and altogether miserable experience, and I only really finished it because I still feel some regret about dropping Lies of P. I know the only way a bad game can actually get one over on you is by tempting you to play it longer than you’re having fun, but I nonetheless still possess a touch of senseless “gamer pride,” which compelled me to beat the endlessly aggravating, fundamentally anti-player experience that was Wukong. Fortunately, my week was otherwise furnished with a generous scattering of film features, so let us turn our minds to brighter topics as we burn down the Week in Review!
Winter 2025 – Week 7 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am celebrating my birthday in style, by formatting reviews, writing up this here blurb, and maybe doing some laundry later. Hell yeah, no breaks on this party train. As far as general week-in-review business is concerned, I have spent the last week getting progressively more angry at Black Myth Wukong, which appears to have been designed by thirty independent developers who were barred from any mutual conversation. As a result, none of the game’s control mechanics, enemies, or environments successfully mesh with each other, which when combined with the game’s frequent outright glitches makes for… well, it’s not Hollow Knight, I’ll tell you that much. I’ll have to let you know next week if this journey to the west ends with me crushing the disk and chewing up its shards, but for now, let’s break down some films!
Winter 2025 – Week 6 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome on back to Wrong Every Time. We’re now roughly halfway through the winter season, and I’m happy to report that I’ve actually been catching up on BanG Dream! Ave Mujica, having screened and written up its first four episodes over the last week or so. It’s certainly more of a fantastical melodrama than MyGO, but still exceedingly entertaining in its own way, pitting girls who need even more emotional guidance than Tomori or Soyo against bandmates who give even fewer shits than Anon or Raana. The results are as disastrous as you might expect, leaving me with a disorienting psychological crime scene to sort through. I’ve also of course made time for a scattering of variable film screenings, ranging from recent blockbusters to delightful mid-century adventures. Let’s break ‘em down!