Dive into the thrilling world of Arcane Season 2 in our latest review! Join MonteCristo and DoA as they break down the first batch of episodes, scrutinizing the stunning animation and exploring the hefty budget that brought this masterpiece to life. With their extensive history with League of Legends, these veteran hosts uncover the driving forces behind the show's success while tackling the biggest unsolved mystery lurking in Runeterra! Don't miss a minute of their expert insights! Learn...

Get ready for an in-depth exploration as MonteCristo and DoA break down Netflix's "Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance" in this episode of Nerd Legion! Join the duo as they dive into the expansive Gundam universe, dissecting the unexpected portrayal of iconic mechas and the show's narrative twists. While the review touches on some captivating elements, the duo won’t shy away from critiquing the not-so-great animation that left fans wanting more. Perfect for both seasoned Gundam lovers and newbies,...

A dense, enigmatic, and bombastic epic, John Boorman's 1981 film Excalibur brings the Arthurian romances to life in all their symbolic glory. Featuring a stellar cast, including Helen Mirren, Nicol Williamson, Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart, Ciarán Hinds, and Gabriel Byrne, the film is an opportunity to see many lauded British and Irish actors early in their careers. Excalibur leans into the episodic and mysterious nature of the Arthurian stories, leaving it to the viewer to interpret and...

Clash of the Titans continues Nerd Legion's 1980s fantasy marathon, taking us into Greek mythology (kind of) with Perseus' battles against Medusa and the Kraken. While straying very far from its source material, the film gave us Ray Harryhausen's last crack at stop-motion and effects wizardry as a capstone to a multi-decade career in Hollywood. Maggie Smith and Lawrence Olivier also add some dramatic weight as Greek gods to counter-balance the action sequences of Harry Hamlin's Perseus. A...

Beloved by many who saw it in their childhoods, the Rankin/Bass musical interpretation of the Return of the King from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings epic is Nerd Legion's next film in the 1980s fantasy film marathon. Featuring music from folk legend Glenn Yarbrough and narration from the incomparable John Huston, this film represents a serious if flawed attempt to realize this iconic book. From disco orcs to a Skeletor-sounding Witch King, this interpretation of Return of the King is as silly as...

We kick off our review of every 1980s sword and sorcery movie, with Hawk the Slayer, a cult-classic British fantasy film directed by Terry Marcel from 1980. With charmingly terrible dialogue and special effects, this movie provides an unabashed good time with cheesy and tropey moments. Clearly inspired and derivative of Star Wars and pulp fantasy of the era, Hawk the Slayer still provides some unique moments and solid pacing. While no masterpiece, viewers should still find this film to be an...

Warcraft is a 2016 action fantasy film based on the video game series of the same name. Director Duncan Jones attempts to adapt the story from the very first Warcraft game, and ends up creating a tonally confusing film that can't decide who its target audience is. We praise most of the effects and some of the film's comedic moments, but pan the fight choreography, poor writing, and several other key aspects. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alien: Romulus is the latest installment of the Alien franchise, stretching back to Ridley Scott's original sci-fi horror flick from 1979. Taking place between Alien and James Cameron's sequel, Aliens, this film takes the franchise into the teen slasher genre by featuring a young cast and a compelling set-up to their encounter with the xenomorphs. However, once the action starts, Alien: Romulus quickly devolves into the equivalent of a theme park ride of the franchise's first two films, with...

Deadpool & Wolverine is a blockbuster smash success, now surpassing the billion dollar mark at the box office, but is Ryan Reynolds' latest outing good or just another tedious entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Hugh Jackman is resurrected to perform his iconic role as Wolverine in a quippy buddy comedy that may be thin on plot but makes up for it on entertaining action sequences, referential humor, and pure millennial nostalgia bait. Deadpool & Wolverine is a film obsessed with...

The finale of House of the Dragon's second season left many fans disappointed, but was it as anti-climactic as some are saying or is it a slow burn setting up for an epic conclusion? DoA and MonteCristo break down their favorite moments as they review the entirety of Season 2 as well as the scenes and story arcs that failed to deliver. Even without a conclusive battle sequence to close out the final episode, HotD sets up immense stakes in the war between the Greens and the Blacks that we're...

Time Bandits from 1981 is Terry Gilliam's first film after his efforts with Monty Python, announcing the arrival of a wildly creative director striking out in his own direction. While slow and clunky at times, the film retains much of Monty Python's deadpan and surreal humor while offering highly memorable scenes and an utterly unforgettable concept. Monte discusses his nostalgia for Time Bandits while DoA watches with fresh eyes, providing a unique breakdown of this cult classic. Learn more...

The Boys Season 4 is finished and, unfortunately, hasn't gotten much better since Monte & DoA discussed the first three episodes. The whole season feels like unnecessary filler, particularly with the re-introduction of Soldier Boy in the final moments of the season finale. Hughie's plot armor somehow only gets thicker the longer the show goes on and this season is completely crammed with pointless plotlines from Frenchie to Neuman. The Boys fails to present compelling or funny satire,...

Star Wars' The Acolyte finishes its first - and hopefully only - season on Disney+ and, unfortunately, ends as badly as it begun. DoA and MonteCristo conduct their final review of the first season, including a live watch along with episode 8. Our hosts are appalled with the recycling of Star Wars tropes within the series, the reliance on deus ex machina to advance plot points, the lack of ability to care about any of the characters, and more. They finish off the episode with some cross over...

Sony's latest disastrous attempt at a superhero film, 2024's Madame Web, is almost unbelievably bad, boring, and poorly acted. Perhaps undermined by significant re-writes and changes in post-production, it's possible that the original vision of the movie may have been of passable quality. MonteCristo and DoA discuss just how awful the film is and debate whether it successfully moves from regular bad to comedically bad and its potential as a cult classic. Nerd Legion debuts a new,...

While many laud the first five seasons of Game of Thrones, can House of the Dragon be held to the same lofty standard at the start of the second season? This show refines its predecessor and provides a sharp and focused narrative on feudal politics and a believable succession crisis within the Targaryen family. Monte and DoA discuss the first season of House of the Dragon and the start of the second, focusing on the intricately-wrought intrigue, the wonderful acting, and the depth of the...

Amazon Prime has released the fourth season of The Boys, which was very quick to un-do almost everything that occurred in the previous season. While the stellar acting, particularly by Antony Starr as Homelander, remains, much of the plot revolves around copy/pasting modern politics into the show without the artfulness or cleverness of satire. While Monte and DoA still enjoy some of the plotlines, particularly around Vought and Neumann, the new story arcs seem lifted from soap operas, such as...

Star Wars is back with The Acolyte and the franchise may have finally hit rock bottom. The new show on Disney+ is a nonsensical mess that backfires in its thematic choices and leaves viewers bored and with virtually no characters or plotlines to care about. Monte and DoA break down this televised catastrophe and wonder how Disney managed to collect such a unique combination of terrible writers, actors, and producers to waste $180 million.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga debuted to critical acclaim, but weak box office sales. Monte and DoA discuss George Miller's latest effort and whether it lives up to the Mad Max legacy. With compelling performances from Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy, Furiosa continues in the vein of Fury Road with epic chase sequences and further world-building around the Citadel of the film. The question remains: did anyone actually want this prequel or would it have been better to continue where Fury Road...

Disney+ has revived the late '90's X-Men animated series with a sequel set in the same era, X-Men '97. Resurrected by pop-culture necromancer Beau Demayo, this series may appeal to millennials desperate for any form of nostaligia, but for the uninitiated it may be jammed with too many subplots and other distractions. While many reviewers are raving about this show, DoA and Monte found the core storypoints and faithfulness to the X-Men universe compelling, but lacked the same enthusiasm for...

40 years after its release, Nerd Legion revisits David Lynch's version of Dune from 1984, which stars Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides. DoA and Monte discuss the differences between this first attempt to put Dune on film with the recent Denis Villeneuve epic, both appreciating and laughing at some of the decisions made in this interpretation. While perhaps the source material was too challenging for the technological limits of the era, Lynch's Dune still contains some impressive visuals,...

We return to Shogun on Nerd Legion to give our final review and to discuss the second half of the series, which concludes Toranaga's ambitious character arc. The latter half of the show focuses on the deep political intrigue of feudal Japan and rounds out the character development of John Blackthorne and Mariko, leaving us with a consummate victory before the battle truly begins. This show will go down as an all-time triumph and we beg for it to end here since it's already a complete story....

Not simply content with making one terrible Rebel Moon movie, Zack Snyder delivers another via Netflix called Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver. Almost nothing happens in this film as it decides to dedicate its running time to slow motion grain harvesting rather than world-building or character development, leading to some rushed and hilarious moments. Interspersed with occasionally interesting visuals, Rebel Moon ends up being a hybrid of the Seven Samurai and The Canterbury Tales if they...

Amazon Prime tapped Jonathan Nolan to create an adaptation of the video game property Fallout, which largely succeeds in providing and entertaining expansion of the games' world. Originally created by Bioware and followed-up with titles from Bethesda, Fallout portrays a post-apocalyptic Earth with macabre, dark humor and quirky characters, which the show gleefully portrays. The adaptation even managed to "feel" like a video game at times with side quests and bit characters while also...

Made for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, Sunghoo Park's Ninja Kamui breaks no new ground for anime or film/TV shows in general, instead preferring to lean on every trope imaginable. The show uses flashbacks to tell the story in the worst way possible, instead of sequencing the story chronologically, which would have given the story more emotional resonance. Beyond some cool fight sequences, Ninja Kamui offers nothing new and your time can be safely spent watching much better anime that's...