New Sailor Moon Crystal Episode 1 Review

Story: "Based on Naoko Takeuchi’s legendary manga series, Sailor Moon Crystal retells the story of Sailor Moon as she searches for her fellow Sailor Guardians and the Legendary Silver Crystal to stop the dark forces of Queen Beryl."

Read More

Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Slash Action Figure Review

Almost all major superheroes have evil counterparts; Superman has Bizarro, Spider-Man has Venom, Flash has Reverse Flash, Captain Marvel (Shazam) has Black Adam, etc., the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are no different.

They have Slash.

Read More

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie Raphael Action Figure Review

When it comes to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I have a hard time picking a favorite Turtle. I guess it really depends on the version of the green teens we're talking about. From the first movie and 2007's TMNT, my favorite would have to be Raphael. From the original cartoon show, I'd go with Michelangelo. As for the arcade and NES games, as well as the new IDW comic, I'd say Leonardo. With the Nicktoon, Donatello has risen to the top. With any version, I've always loved the dynamic between all four.

Read More

Disney Exclusive Indiana Jones Action Figure Review

I think that, like many children of the 80's, Indiana Jones is one of my favorite movie icons. As an action figure collector, I've always wanted a great plastic representation of this adventuring archaeologist.  With the last, better off forgotten movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, we got a bunch of Indiana Jones merchandise including stuff from the older movies. As far as action figures, a bunch of 3-3/4" and 12" scale figures were released.  That's all well and good, but as a 6"-7" collector, this just didn't cut it.  More recently, the Good Smile Company produced a 6" Figma action figure, but due to some negative reviews and a high price tag, I've held off on getting it.  There was however, another option.

In 2007-08, if you were willing to travel and go on an adventure, you could track down what was at the time, quite a treasure. By going to Disneyland or Walt Disney World and visiting the gift shop at the Indiana Jones stunt show, you could buy your very own exclusive 7" Indiana Jones action figure.   Not having a time machine or a ticket to a Disney Park, I lucked out and came across my figure at a local collectibles/toy store.  At a fair price of $25, which is twice the original price in parks but less than half the Figma price, I just had to pick it up and add it to my collection.

Does this still hold up as the great figure I was hoping for, or will I have to keep searching?  Let's find out.

Package:  This is one heck of a large toy package, although it's about the size of the Marvel Selects packages, but with a little less cardboard, so it's not that unusual. Considering everything you're getting, a lot of the space is being taken up, but it's still bigger than it needed to be. The package consists of plastic bubble and tray mounted onto a cardback.  None of it is all that exciting, you have the Indiana Jones and Disney logos along with a sketch of Indiana on the front and a big picture of the figure on the back.  There is no text with a description or information anywhere on the card.

If you're one to keep figures in the box, you'll at least have a clear view of the figure, if you take it out, you probably won't be able to reuse the package.  No big loss, it really isn't that great.

Verdict: 3/10

Sculpt:  The sculpt on this figure was handled by Gentle Giants, so that's usually some good news. They have a track record of doing a lot of really great sculpts for action figures and statues. When looking at this figure, there is no question as to who it's meant to be, but there are a few things that are a little wonky about it. The proportions just seem a little off. His feet are really big, at full scale his shoe size would have to be a 20 (in the U.S.) at least.  His arms are maybe a bit too long and his stance is a little wide. The head, especially the chin, doesn't look quite right in profile. None of the proportions look terrible but they do throw off the look of the figure.

Other than those issues, the figure looks pretty good.  The clothes hang well on the figure and have all the appropriate details and folds you would expect loose fitting clothes to have.  That's not to say that his outfit looks too big on him, it's just that typically the action figure characters tend to have more form fitting garb.

Verdict: 7/10

Scale:  At a 6.75" tall, the scale for this figure comes out to be 7"(1:10) scale.  Since there aren't any other characters from this series (although there are other figures of Indiana Jones), there are no other figures to judge him against accept those from other toy lines. He fits in fairly well with most Marvel Selects, DC Collectibles, NECA, and Mezco 7" scale lines.  It's obviously going to vary from figure to figure, but I don't really think he could have been sized any differently to fit in better.

Verdict: 9/10

Paint:  The paint on this figure is all very well applied and looks good. For the most part all the color choices are perfect. The only real issue I have is with the skin tone.  It's not as obvious in the pictures, but in person the skin has a lot of yellow to it.  Side by side with some other figure it really stands out. Other than that, his clothes are all painted properly and there don't seem to be any important paint applications that were missed.

Verdict: 8/10

Articulation:  There is quite a bit of articulation on this figure, but it could have used some more useful joints. Here is a list of what you get:

• Hinged neck
• Hinge and swivel shoulders
• Hinged elbows
• Swivel wrists
• Swivel waist
• Hinge and swivel hips
• Hinged knees
• Swivel ankles

The neck being just a hinge rather than ball joint, means that Indy is only able to look up or down, but not side to side.  I have absolutely no idea why they would have designed a figure like this, 99.9% of all the figures I have come across have necks that allow for left to right movement over front to back, yet this one doesn't for some strange reason. It could have easily been done if the neck peg was round instead of square. Just bizarre.

The arms would have benefited from a swivel joint at the biceps or the elbows.  The torso could use a ball joint or hinge, but I'm alright with out it. The legs definitely need another swivel joint at the hips or thighs, with what the figure has, it looks like he's playing hacky sack when his leg is lifted. The right leg is limited by holster, so you can't really bring it forward at all. As for the ankles, you can only turn them side to side a couple of degrees. Even with all these issues, you can still get quite a few nice poses out of this figure, it just could have been so much better.

Verdict: 6.5/10

Accessories:  This area is a real highlight for the figure. There is no shortage of items for Dr. Jones to interact with.  Here is what he comes packed with:

• Hat
• Whip
• Revolver
• Satchel (strap goes under jacket and is not easily removal)
• Gold idol
• Journal
• Antidote vial
• Scimitar (curved sword)
• Ruins display base w/ bamboo (separate piece)

All of these items are really great to have and are excellent to display with Indy.  They are each very well sculpted and painted with the exception of the vial which went unpainted and just looks like a little brown tube. (It's sure to be lost very soon.) I was a little surprised the base didn't have pegs, but the figure doesn't have peg holes anyway.  Luckily the figure has large feet and stands fine on his own. The gun, whip, book, and sword all fit nicely in his hands. I'm disappointed that the gun can't go in the holster though. Overall, a very nice assortment of accessories.

Verdict: 9/10

Quality Control:  No real issues here. I wish the hat fit his hat better, but as fare as quality, everything is just fine.

Verdict: 9/10

Overall:  Not a perfect figure, but I'm still very happy to have him. Just a few slight changes, especially with some of the articulation, and a would have loved him. For now I will continue to display him along with my other 7" scale figures and just appreciate that fact that I have this figure at all. It's not a one I'm likely to come across again at a reasonable price, so I'm glad I got him.

Verdict: 8/10

Click Here for a review of Marvel Select Amazing Spider-Man 2 action figure.

Click Here for a review of Warrior Claw Wolverine action figure.

Click Here for a review of the DC Collectibles Batman action figure.

Click Here for a review of the DC Collectibles Nightwing action figure.

Click Here for a review of Talon and other action figures.

Click Here for a review of the DC Collectibles Bizarro action figure.

Click Here for a review of the DC Multiverse '89 Batman action figure.

Click Here for a review of Link from Legend of Zelda.

The opinions expressed by the HiddenLevel Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of HiddenLevel.org or anyone involved in the running of this site. HiddenLevel is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the Bloggers of this site.

The HiddenLevel Blog was founded as site for contributors to be able to express their opinions and share news about the interest they enjoy.  The main purpose is to have fun.

Other sites are welcome to use the information found on this sit as long as credit and a link are provided.  For and questions you may have or for further information about the site, please contact hiddenlevel.team@gmail.com

Read More

Marvel Select Amazing Spider-Man 2 Action Figure Review

So The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was far from a perfect movie. Everyone has there own opinions as to what they did and didn't like about the movie. Personally, I liked just about everything about Spider-Man/Peter Parker himself, I just wasn't to thrilled with the villains or the direction of the story. I think one thing people can agree on is that the movie delivered the most faithful adaption of the comic book costume to date.

Product Description

A Diamond Select Toys release! The Amazing Spider-Man is back in an all-new big-screen adventure and he's also back in the hit Marvel Select line! This 7-inch-scale figure depicts Spidey in his brand-new costume and features 16 points of articulation. Comes packaged in display-ready Select packaging with spine reference artwork. Designed and sculpted by Gentle Giant!

Today's review is of Marvel Select: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 action figure by Diamond Select Toys. This figure is available in comic book and specialty stores for a suggested retail price of $24.99USD.

Package:  This figure comes in the same type of packaging that Marvel Select has been using since the line's begin.  I can't really think of any other line that has maintained that same style package for so long.  I'm sure for those that keep the figures mint on card and like consistency, this is a great thing.

The box is very big, and it does a good job of displaying what you're getting. There is a nice image of movie Spider-Man on the side that looks good when the box is displayed spine out on a shelf like a book. The back of the box has another shot of Spidey, this time full body and there is also a description of the Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie and of this figure:

For Peter Parker, life is busy - between taking out the bad guys as Spider-Man and spending time with the girl he loves, Gwen Stacy, high school graduation can't come quickly enough. Peter hasn't forgotten about the promise he made to Gwen's father to protect her by staying away - but that's a promise he just can't keep. Things will change for Peter when a new villain named Electro emerges, his ld friend Harry Osborn returns, and Peter uncovers new clues about his past. This 7-inch-scale action figure of Spider-Man is based on his appearance in the film The Amazing Spider-Man 2, features 16 points of articulation and is compatible with other Marvel Select action figures. Collect them all!

As I said, the box is big so if you do take the figure out of the package, you end up with a lot of waste. At least twice the amount of packaging that the average figure this size comes with and there is no real hope of saving and reusing the package to reseal the figure. So the package is neither environmentally nor collector friendly.

Verdict: 5/10

Sculpt:  I really like the sculpt on this Spider-Man quite a bit. The raised webbing and spiders along with the textures throughout the blue areas of the costume are really well done. The proportions throughout are almost perfect. I say almost, because I find the neck to be a little too short.  At first I thought the head might be too large,  but I think it's only because it sits too low.  Typically I think they make Spider-Man's head too small on action figures, so I think the fact that I'm use to seeing it smaller was also throwing me off.

I think I might like this figure better than the Marvel Legends version of the ASM2 Spidey, only because the sculpt and the articulation are integrated a better. The figure does a really good job of looking like it stepped right out of the movie.

Verdict: 9/10

Scale:  The scale for this figure comes out to be 7"(1:10) scale. The figure is just around 6.75" which means he fits in well with most Marvel Select figures.  He is shorter than some of the other movie characters, but I never considered him to be as tall as Captain America or Thor, so he seems to be just right along side the Avengers. He's also shorter than Wolverine, but movie Wolverine is played by a 6'2" Hugh Jackman and Spider-Man is played by a 5'10" Andrew Garfield so, again, the scale seems to be good.

The scale of this figure is definitely not going to work along side Marvel Legends figures, but fits great with many of the NECA or Mezco 7 inch figures. If you're looking to have Kick-Ass or Hellboy face-off against Spidey, this is the figure to use.

Verdict: 10/10

Paint:  Unfortunately I had a glaring paint issue with this figure that I wish I had noticed before I opened the box. Right on his chest just to the bottom right of his chest spider emblem, there is an area that should be blue, but went unpainted.  The store I bought him from had two of this figure and I past on the other one because there was some black splatter on the white part of one of his eyes.  Right there you have two strikes against the paint work for these figures, which is just too bad, because the rest of the paint is fairly well done.

The black lines on the web aren't perfect, but they are much better than I've seen on just about any other Spider-Man figure.  The black in general is very crisp and so is the white of the eyes.  The blue on the suit has a light paint wash that may have been unnecessary, but it doesn't look bad.

Verdict: 7/10

Articulation:  While not quite as articulated as the Marvel Legends Spider-Man, this figure has a wonderful amount of useful joints. As I said before, the articulation in incorporated in a way that maintains the realistic look of the sculpt, yet still allows you to get some really dynamic poses. I do however wish the head had a little more range of movement.  I think if the neck had been made a little longer, it may have alleviated that issue.

The follow are the points of articulation this figure has:

• Ball-jointed neck
• Hinge and swivel shoulders
• Hinge and swivel elbows
• Hinge and swivel wrists
• Ball-jointed torso
• Double swivel and hinge hips
• Double hinged knees
• Hinge and swivel ankles

Verdict: 9/10

Accessories:  There is no shortage of accessories that come with this figure. It is really a pleasure to get a figure like this that has so many options for display.  Here's what you get:

• a set set of hands with fingers out wide
• a set of griping hands
• a set of hands in fists
• a set of hands in fists with thumbs out
• a set of hands shooting webs
• 2 webs
• a fire hose nozzle
• a firefight helmet/hat

It's nice to not be stuck with yet another Spider-Man that has one hand in a fist and the other in a web-shooting position. You can still have that set-up if you want, but there are also so many other combinations.  The only set of hands I question are the ones that are in a fist with the thumbs out but not up.  I guess it's for holding the brim the the hat. Speaking of which, the firefighter items are unnecessary but very cool scene-specific props to have.  It's a shame the hose nozzle doesn't come with  a little bit of hose or at least have a coupling so you can add your own.

This toy should easily have a 10 out of 10 for this category if it wasn't for that fact that this is the "regular" version. It turns out there are three versions of this toy, this one, a Disney Store exclusive that comes with a Peter Parker head, and another version that will also include a display base.  Because I got the version that comes with the least amount of accessories, I had to at least take off half a point. I could have easily gotten the Disney Store version, the store near me always has tons of the exclusives, but I wasn't too keen on the head sculpt from the photos I saw.  The version with the base didn't interest me because display bases tend to end up in a box unless they are really interesting.  For those reasons, plus the fact that my local comic store was having a 25% off sale, I was fine with the version that I got.

Verdict: 9.5/10

Quality Control:  Other than the paint issue, I didn't have any problems with this figure what so ever.

Verdict: 8/10

Overall:  At this scale, this is by far may favorite Spider-Man toy.  I love that he works as both a movie and comic book accurate figure.  The paint issue annoys me, and I wish that specialty toy lines like Marvel Select and DC Collectibles didn't have so many paint problems lately, but it doesn't take away too much form my enjoyment of this figure.  I definitely recommend checking this figure out.  If you find one with better paint, it's easily a 9.  If not...

Verdict: 8.5/10

Click Here for a review of Warrior Claw Wolverine.

Click Here for a review of the DC Collectibles Batman action figure.

Click Here for a review of the DC Collectibles Nightwing action figure.

Click Here for a review of Talon and other action figures.

Click Here for a review of the DC Collectibles Bizarro action figure.

Click Here for a review of the DC Multiverse '89 Batman action figure.

Click Here for a review of Link from Legend of Zelda.

The opinions expressed by the HiddenLevel Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of HiddenLevel.org or anyone involved in the running of this site. HiddenLevel is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the Bloggers of this site.

The HiddenLevel Blog was founded as site for contributors to be able to express their opinions and share news about the interest they enjoy.  The main purpose is to have fun.

Other sites are welcome to use the information found on this sit as long as credit and a link are provided.  For and questions you may have or for further information about the site, please contact hiddenlevel.team@gmail.com

Read More

Warrior Claw Wolverine Action Figure Review

The last few X-Men movies haven't had a whole lot of support in the toy aisles. For First Class, Days of Future Past, and The Wolverine, if you wanted any figures based on a character from one of those movies  your only real option was a few sets of different sets of Minimates. I have nothing against Minimates, in fact I'm a fan and collector of them, it's just that they have a bit of a limited audience.  If you're a collector of Marvel's 4" or 6" lines, you're almost totally out of luck.  Of the three movies I named, The Wolverine seemed to get at least a little toy support.  Unfortunately the toys where based on the comics, not the movies, and they weren't very good.

Read More

Legoland Boston Review: Why would I want an annual pass?

I recently went to LEGOLAND Discovery Center Boston with my wife and 2 year old daughter (you can't go without a child just in case you're wondering unless you go to one of their adults only events) and I have to say the experience wasn't as awesome as I'd thought it'd be.  To be fair though, we missed out on a few attractions on our first visit, two were because of height restrictions (Merlin's Apprentice and Kingdom Quest require riders to be at least 36" to ride) and we also missed the Lego Factory tour as it wasn't mentioned to us how to see it.

Read More

Godzilla (2014) Movie Review by Solid Mike

Before we begin, I will like to state that this article will have massive spoilers of the new Godzilla film; so if you haven't seen it yet, please don't read this article.

Now that we have that out of the way, I will like to inform my fellow Godzilla fans that this has to be the best Godzilla film as far as acting and story wise goes and by acting I mean Bryan Cranston., unfortunately that is where stops.

So here is the plot; The movie starts by showing you series of video clips where you see different governments testing out nuclear bombs. The infamous atomic bombing that was believe to be an attack by the US for Japan attacking Pearl Harbor, was actually used to killed a creature known as Godzilla.

In 1999, two scientists (Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins) are called in to investigate on what they think is a massive earthquake in the Philippines. When they arrived they notice a massive skeleton, which they think is the skeleton of Godzilla, only to realize that it's not. While exploring this colossal skeleton, they noticed two egg-shaped pods, one appears to be intact and dormant, the other has hatched and is headed to the Janijira Nuclear Plant in Tokyo, Japan. 

Before the creature causes havoc at the plant, the movie introduces the Plant supervisor's Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) and his family. While at work, the Plant is hit by some unknown occurrence and Joe does what any man would do and send his wife (Juilette Binoche) down there to investigate. However, disaster strikes and the Plant succumbs to a massive earthquake that ends up killing Joe's wife in the process.

Fifteen years later Joe and his wife's son Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is all grown up and works for the United States Navy as an explosive expert. While at his home in San Francisco with his wife (Elizabeth Olsen) and son Sam, (Carson Bolde) Ford receives a call that his father was arrested for trespassing in a quarantined area. So Ford flys back to Japan to try to help his father, who is still suffering from the death of his wife, to try to get him to come back to San Francisco to stay with him and his family.

But Joe refuses, because he believes he is on the brink of discovering on what really cause the catastrophe on the Janijira Nuclear Plant fifteen years ago. Joe's theory was that; whatever cause the disater at the Plant 15 years ago was communicating with something. After some dialogue and Joe convincing Ford to go back to the quarantine area only to get captured and bring to a secret facility where the audience is introduced to Godzilla's main enemy M.U.T.O (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism). While the design for the MUTO is ok, it would've been more appreciated by the fans if the director would've choose one of the countless other monsters that Godzilla faced in series.

The MUTO are colossal bug like creatures (similar to the pray mantis) that has a mean appetite  for radiation. To my surprise there was not only one MUTO but two in the film, a male and female. The male is awoken because it was apparently receiving some explicit signals from the female MUTO.

While these two creatures were sex talking with each other, Godzilla was hearing all of this and was highly disturbed by all of this explicit talk from these two nasty creatures.

At this very moment is where the movie begins to fall apart, because you start seeing the MUTOs more than you see Godzilla. However, you can't help but get excited on how they introduced the "King of the Monsters", but once they do and build up the suspense on what you think is going to be an epic showdown between the MUTO and Godzilla, they switch the scene and shows Ford's son Sam watching the fight on the news.

The most disappointed thing about the whole movie is that it seem like the director was trying to hide Godzilla for this big epic moment that the film failed to showcase monster to do or perform. Personally, the movie would've been better if was called MUTO and Godzilla made a guest appearance.

Another disappointing factor of the movie was how the director decided to choose the role for Godzilla to played as. Now true fans of the Godzilla series know that Godzilla has played a role as the good guy, (the director decided to go this route) the villain and neutral creature. Personally, the neutral route would've been a much better choice. It would've been nice to see Godzilla paint the picture that he was helping the human civilization out only to turn around and cause more havoc on them.....I mean he's a monster after all people. Instead, Godzilla was made into a predator that supposedly hunted the MUTO, not to eat them, but to kill them and go back to the pacific ocean.

The movie focus entirely to much on the characters and the MUTOs and very little screen time was given to the big G. Even the last couple of fight scenes where Godzilla is fighting both MUTOs, again you see the two creatures giving Godzilla a beating, but you see more of them than Godzilla himself. This scene was a joke, because the music changes its tone and turns into a sad depressing one, because you witness Godzilla getting the radiation beaten out of him.

The scene that should've redeem the movie from being disappointing up until that point also was a failure. The scene where Godzilla uses his signature atomic breath was a let down. While the build up was excellent, the execution just felt lacking.

I can pick this movie apart all day because I've seen every film in the series up until this one and my expectations were set entirely to high, especially after seeing how good Pacific Rim was. In any case Godzilla 2014 is not a bad movie, it's actually good. It demolish the Godzilla film that was made in 1998 completely and that's an excellent thing. But if you go there and expect to see a lot of Godzilla, you will be highly disappointed. Hopefully if a sequel is made they will do it right that time.

Read More

Godzilla (2014) Movie Review by Kevshiro

Let the Godzilla blasting begin.  Huge spoilers below.  You have been warned...

Godzilla, why do I feel so blasé about it. Is it the story?  The CGI?  The M.U.T.O.s?  The actors?  I can't quite put my finger on it but I'm just not feeling the way I'd thought I'd feel.  I guess I'll just have to take it apart a little at a time and see what it is that just didn't make this an awesome flick. 

The movie opens with the American Navy trying to kill off Godzilla with a nuclear bomb. They think they got him but he disappears under the water hidden from sight.  Flash forward a few years and a Polynesian mining team has accidentally opened a giant hole in their site leading to a large cavern filled with giant bones and 2 pods one of which has mysteriously opened and disappeared into the ocean. 

Meanwhile Joe Brody, played by Bryan Cranston, his wife and child live in nearby Japan where Joe works as a nuclear power plant Engineer. He's been recently detecting sysmic quakes and wants to figure out the issue before a giant earthquake takes out the plant. A giant tremor causes an eruption within the plant, trapping Joe's wife inside the plant who dies a horrible death right in front of her husband after being exposed to noxious vapors. So far, so good with the story. I'm actually interested all up to here which rarely happens in a Godzilla flick. 

Now flash forward 15 years later, we find Joe Brody jobless and fixated on finding out what caused the accident that killed his wife. His son, Ford Brody (who the heck names their kid after a truck) has started his own family and is trying to spend some quality time with them after getting some shore leave from being in the Army.  He gets a call that his father was caught trespassing on the site where they lived in Japan. He flies all the way to Japan to get his dad out of jail and tells him to come home with him. The father agrees but turns nutcake again by the morning saying he needs to get back to their house to get some files that prove the seismic activity is happening again. So they both go merrily along in their haz-mat suits to their old house to pick up some zip files (for those of you who weren't aware of 90's tech. those are like today's thumb drives, which will soon be obsolete as everything is being stored in the cloud).  They get captured again and are taken to the power plant as somehow it's back in operation even though everything is supposed to be extremely radioactive.

We now finally get to see our first glimpse of an actual monster as the giant beetle bug wakes up and starts destroying everything.  Dr. Ichiro Serizawa, Ken Watanabe character, tries to keep it contained in a giant fence but the creature takes down the fence taking out lots of workers and Joe Brody who was freed from his cell by a giant EMP from the creature.  Now my first thought is, if this creature is from ancient times, why would it have the power to take out electricity?  It never uses this power against Godzilla in the film so what the heck is the use of it besides stopping military vehicles.  So Joe dies way too early in the film and now all the main focus is on Dodge, uh I mean Ford, trying to help the military and Dr. Serizawa ( who looks like he's completely stoned throughout the rest of the film) stop this giant beetle from destroying the world. 

The military tracks down the M.U.T.O. or Massive Unidentified Terrastrial Organism, (leave it to the military to name the creature) then watch helplessly as it eats anything radioactive.  I then felt my first and only goosebumps in the film when Godzilla comes out of slumber and tracks down the MUTO on Hawaii, and comes on land to confront the creature. They then start to get ready for a really cool battle and then surprise, they cut away to Ford's kid on the couch watching TV of the SUPER COOL AWESOME MONSTER FIGHT which I wanted to see.  WTF!  You can't cut away from the cool monster fight!  

Dr. Serizawa then realizes, in his stoned, zoned out haze, that the MUTO was calling another MUTO which was taken away to Nevada and locked away in a mountain with tons of other radioactive waste.  Some military folks go checking each cell for the egg and somehow the MUTO busted its way out of the mountain cell leaving a giant hole WITHOUT ANYONE KNOWING!! The creature which is much larger than the first creature, goes trampling through Las Vegas stepping on all the little old grannies who are so intent on playing they don't even notice it until all the power goes out. 

The flying MUTO gets away from Godzilla and they then cut back to Toyota, I mean Ford (I really hate that name), and he's signed up for another mission to try to lure the MUTOs and Godzilla out into the ocean where they'll detonate a nuclear weapon which will hopefully kill them all. The military don't get a chance to unleash their plan as the flying MUTO gets ahold of the nuclear weapon and gives it to the giant MUTO who takes it and buries it along with its eggs to fuel the next generation of MUTOs. The military follow Godzilla to San Franciso where the giant all out monster battle happens. Well, a bit of it before they cut away again to Mazda (I'm starting to run out of truck names) who's jumping in from a plane because that's the only way to get into the city to recapture the bomb and stop the detonation. 

The 2 MUTOs team up against Godzilla and start beating the crap out of him, which usually happens in all Godzilla films, and meanwhile Ford finds the hidden eggs and a-bomb.  They can't stop the bomb's timer and decide to take it out to a boat to detonate it. Ford decides to stay back and fry the eggs by releasing the fuel of a well placed gas truck that didn't explode AT ALL while a giant monster was digging a huge hole. This luckily distracts the creatures so that Godzilla can get up and get a second chance at blasting these creatures with his super atomic fire breath. The lead up to his breath is awesome as you see a little glow in his tail flow all the way up his back until Godzilla inhales and lets out a wimpy blue gassy burp that flows across the screen like water. Well that was a little unexpected. I wanted to feel that atomic blast come bursting out his mouth destroying everything in its path but it felt really flat to me. 

This is what Godzilla's atomic fire breath should look like.

Godzilla then smashes the flying MUTO with his tail into a building killing it with protruding metal posts but unfortunately for Godzilla the only building that seems taller than him comes crashing down burying him under tons of rubble and also smothering some poor nearby people, and Fords wife, hiding in a fallout shelter as if I can remember correctly, breathing all that dust can't be good for anyone. 

The giant MUTO goes after the a-bomb that was taken away from the hole it dug and starts killing all the soldiers except for Nissan, oh I mean Ford (I knew there was one more truck name) who was heroically sacrificing himself to get the bomb out of the city. Luckily for him, as the giant MUTO was closing in, Godzilla sneaks up on the monster and opens up it's mouth to puke up another blue burp blast severing it's head right off the MUTOs body. I just have to wonder though, how did a giant monster like Godzilla break itself out of a ton of rubble without making a sound then make it's way down to the ocean without making any waves to get close enough to bite the MUTO from behind. My only guess is giant Godzilla sneakers as that's the only thing that makes sense. 

Godzilla triumphantly walks back to land and promptly passes out and so does Ford, who I was hoping would get blown up but is rescued with 5 minutes left on the clock which I'm sure isn't enough time to get away from a giant nuclear blast that, as the military puts it "makes the bomb at the bikini islands look like a firecracker."

Everyone starts looking for their loved ones and Big Foot (Ford) meets up with his wife, who has absolutely no dust whatsoever on her, and they all cheer on Godzilla as he wakes up and stumbles off into the ocean like a drunkard after drinking too much the night before. 

So after all that, you can see that the issues with Godzilla is exactly what I thought would happen in our Jump the Gun segment.  Way too much people, not enough monster fights. And they even made it worse by leading you on with a "here comes a really cool fight but oops no, we're going to cut away to some other thing, then cut back to a tail going past a building". Such a shame, I really wanted to love this film. Ah well, guess I'll have to stick to the classic Godzilla films. - Kevshiro 

The opinions expressed by the HiddenLevel Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of HiddenLevel.org or anyone involved in the running of this site. HiddenLevel is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the Bloggers of this site.

The HiddenLevel Blog was founded as site for contributors to be able to express their opinions and share news about the interest they enjoy.  The main purpose is to have fun.

Other sites are welcome to use the information found on this sit as long as credit and a link are provided.  For and questions you may have or for further information about the site, please contact hiddenlevel.team@gmail.com

Read More

Godzilla (2014) Movie Review by Brunpuppies

Plot Synopsis

In Summer 2014, the world’s most revered monster is reborn as Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures unleash the epic action adventure “Godzilla.” From visionary new director Gareth Edwards (“Monsters”) comes a powerful story of human courage and reconciliation in the face of titanic forces of nature, when the awe-inspiring Godzilla rises to restore balance as humanity stands defenseless.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

This weekend the newest Godzilla movie made it's big screen U.S. debut.  There has been a lot of anticipation among Big Monster Movie fans and even the average movie-goer for this film.  I think many fans wanted to wash away the memory of the infamous 1998 version.  You won't find very many people that are willing to even see that as a "real" Godzilla movie.  Usually it's sited as being a crappy Jurassic Park knock-off and ridiculed for replacing the beloved prehistoric inspired King of Monsters with some "no-atomic-hearth-having, big headed, iguana".  Luckily, all the promotional material leading up to the movie showed a design for Godzilla that is much closer to the "classic" look.  Expectations for this new movie were high.  Did Godzilla live up to those hopes?

 Yes and no.

Much like my outlook on the Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie, the title character exceeded my expectations to the point of being by far my favorite incarnation of the character.  The problem is, the whole movie built around the character did nothing for me.

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of great things going for this movie, like great special effects and CGI, along with various picturesque settings, and competent acting.  It's just that a lot of the focus is put on uninteresting material that doesn't really go any where and characters that I just don't really care about.  It's pretty much the same issue I've had with the Transformers movies where way too much focus is put on the human characters rather than the characters promised in the title of the movies.  Of all dozen or so main characters in this movie, I honestly think Godzilla gets the least screen time.

All the human characters are just so generic.  There's the brilliant scientist that everyone thinks has gone crazy, but it turns out he's the only one who knows what's really going on.  Then there is the heroic everyman that is placed in one extreme situation after another on his journey to reunite with his family.  Of course there is also the man that has studied the monster his whole life and can somehow predict everything about the motives of the character.  Let's not forget the General or Admiral that will do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of his country even if it means sacrificing an enormous amount of those very same people he's trying to protect.  We have all seen these very same characters in numerous movies before and there is not a single thing that makes these stand out over any other.

While were on the subject of generic movie tropes, can I just ask that Hollywood stop making "Big Block Busters" that rely on the heroes stopping the bad guy before military bombs a city off the face of the Earth?  It doesn't have to go away forever, just stop using it for a little while.  It was recently done in Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises.  Hell, I just watched that same plot device last week on the season finally of Arrow!

I'm completely surprised by just how bored I was through parts of this movie.  I literally caught myself nodding off at one point.  That has NEVER happened to me in a movie before.  I really hate the fact that they skip right over two of the big monster battles in this movie!  You see the monsters about to engage one another, then they cut to a scene with people blabbing about stuff and over their shoulders you can see news reports of the battles happening, by the time they cut back, the fight is over!  What a friggin' waste.

I will give the final battle credit for being pretty awesome.  (I kind of has to be considering it's the only one you see.) Godzilla really shines in the last 20-30 minutes and is really outstanding, although his motives are a little unclear.  Even though he does a good deal of destruction, he still manages to come across as more heroic than Superman did in Man of Steel.  And if there is one redeeming thing in the movie it's this; Atomic Fire Breath.  Admittedly pretty badass.

Unfortunately, this movie just did not do it for me.  That's not to say that I don't what to see more Godzilla movies, I do, especially with this version of the King of Monsters, I just want everything else in the movie to be better.

Rating 5 out of 10 Godzookies:

-Brunpuppies

The opinions expressed by the HiddenLevel Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of HiddenLevel.org or anyone involved in the running of this site. HiddenLevel is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the Bloggers of this site.

The HiddenLevel Blog was founded as site for contributors to be able to express their opinions and share news about the interest they enjoy.  The main purpose is to have fun.

Other sites are welcome to use the information found on this sit as long as credit and a link are provided.  For and questions you may have or for further information about the site, please contact hiddenlevel.team@gmail.com

Read More

Godzilla Round Up

Click Here to each HiddenLevel contributor's expectations of the new Godzilla movie

Click Here for SolidMike's movie review of Godzilla (2014)

Click Here for Kevshiro's movie review of Godzilla (2014)

Click Here for Brunpuppies' movie review of Godzilla (2014)

Click Here for Kevshiros' movie review of Godzilla (2014)

Click Here for Brunpuppies' action figure review of  NECA modern Godzilla

Click Here and Here to watch videos about Godzilla

Read More