The Iron Giant | Assassin's Creed Origins: The Hidden Ones DLC

Two very different titles, but both about being more than what you were made for.

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Just as a quick note: I'm going to try and keep things shorter when writing about something for the first time, as can be seen in my review of The Iron Giant below.

The main reason for that is that there's a lot of longer games I'd like to play/re-play (Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3 + DLCs, Crimson Desert, more Assassin's Creed and so on), but doing so means a lot fewer game reviews than usual.

So expect the usual 1-2 lines for movies I've re-watched, and just the 4-5 lines for new movies so I can potentially fit in more than one a week to make up for weeks(/months?) of games writing are just progress reports for how far I'm getting in huge games.

TV shows will pretty much stick to being the same, although rather than hold off so I can review an entire season/series in one go, just write about what I've watched even if that means splitting longer seasons over multiple weeks - I may collate everything into a single post to make it easier to read once a season is done though.

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Here's what I've been watching and playing recently...

MOVIES

The Iron Giant

Movie summary: A young boy befriends a giant robot from outer space that a paranoid government agent wants to destroy. (IMDb)

How The Iron Giant flopped on its release in 1999 is beyond me, because it's a genuinely fantastic film that I've watched many times and yet has never lost its impact.

The hand-drawn animation mixed with very subtle CGI use works perfectly, the voice performances (even Vin Diesel's few lines) are all great, and it has one of the all-time great antagonists in Kent Mansley (voiced by Christopher McDonald).

In fact, the only real criticism I can think of is that it does start a bit slowly, but even that does feel necessary because The Iron Giant just keeps building and building until that emotional sucker-punch of an ending.

And what an ending! I'm not going to spoil it, but Mansley is at his absolute worst here, making him truly detestable, and the giant at his absolute best in response, with a final line that might well bring tears to your eyes...

The Iron Giant isn't just a great animated movie, it's a great movie full-stop and a very easy recommend for all audiences - if you haven't seen it yet, please try and do so. [10/10]

GAMES

Assassin's Creed Origins: The Hidden Ones DLC

Game summary: Years after the birth of the Brotherhood, Bayek is called to the Sinaï Peninsula to investigate a clash between a rebel faction and occupying Roman forces.

The Hidden Ones is a bit of a strange beast of a DLC, being little more than an extension of the base game with a few new areas and targets to eliminate, but also having a much better ending than Origins does.

In one sense, it's a 'comfy' bit of DLC because you're never really asked to do anything all that much different from what you'll have done already, although that might well put some people off if they were hoping for something new.

Then again, the ending to The Hidden Ones feels so much more cathartic than what's in the base game that it almost feels like an apology for not having something better in Origins.

How much you like The Hidden Ones really will depend on how tired (or not) you are of the base gameplay being extended to a new area and little more, although the ending might well make up for it. [7/10]

Also currently playing: Batman: Arkham City, Darkside Detective, Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020), Tyranny

TV

Just a little break after finally catching up with The Mandalorian, so it's on to Ahsoka next and moving yet further away from the original trilogy.

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