Welcome one and all to Friday club! Opinions are like racist relatives, everyone has one but we don’t necessarily want to hear them! Well we say no to this codswollop!
This week we’re tackling the world of review scores and arguing how they may not always be correct for everyone. We’re going to discuss games (rated on opencritic) or movies (rated on rotten tomatoes) that scored below 40% that we absolutely loved, and therefore should have had more praise. Go you ruffians!!!
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
Hi folks, LemurTango, aka Lance here, and this is my unpopular opinion.
I’m flying the flag for Tom Clancy’s Ghost: Recon Breakpoint. This game received a weak rating by Opencritic, with only 15% of critics recommending it. That’s a very sad number! So, why am I championing this game? Simple, as my colleagues would say, I’m a loot whore! I love grinding for shiny shiny loot. And Breakpoint is able to give me that hit.
However, I do have to say. I understand the reason people don’t like it. For one, it won’t be as fun for some to play solo. A lot of the game is tailored more towards co-op, and it does feel lacking sometimes when completing certain activities solo. When I first played the game in the open and closed Beta there were glitches and bugs present, some are still present in the finished product. And this, would also put a lot off.
And yet, despite these clearly visible issues, I love this game. I can end up losing hours, solo exploring the games island setting of Aurora, a rich tropical island, with varying habitats to explore. Taking out wolf camps and perfecting that long distance sniper stealth kill. (Currently held at 438 meters I might add). I also love the tactical element of the game. I’ve found the game steers you towards more tactical gameplay, scouting the area, intelligence gathering and not all guns blazing. The option is there for all out warfare, but as I don’t think the game is made for that, it doesn’t hold up well, when you do ‘go loud’.
And obviously, the loot. The sweet, sweet loot. And breakpoint throws loot at you, like an out of control tennis ball machine. Allowing you to level up and still maintain the customisation level for your character.
I love this game, I loved Wildlands. I’ll probably love the next title in the series too. An unpopular opinion, but one that won’t change. And with the recent release of the Terminator special event, I’ve got even more precious loot to grind for!!
Hellboy 2019
How the effing jeff did this movie bomb. I was put off by the reviews, sure I was, and because of this I didn’t watch this until a couple of weeks ago. After I watched I immediately felt 2 things.; 1) I wish I had seen this at the cinema. 2) I’m gutted this probably won’t get a sequel.
I’m not saying this film should win any oscars and it definitely has it’s faults but I enjoyed it enough to give it an 8 AND I’d say it’s on par with Del Toro’s iterations (for different reasons undoubtedly). I thought Harbour played the big red dude very well, the violence worked really well and overall it was just a lot of fun. I’m genuinely miffed the critics destroyed this film’s future because I think it could have launched a really great, alternative, comic movie franchise.
Especially with all of the set up at the end. I want this to get enough of a cult following to get a netflix series PLEASE!
Mafia III
Okay so this one is a typical example of me being a sucker for a great story and being able to look past some pretty below average gameplay. Seeing Mafia 3 sat at a shockingly low 26% on critics recommend and 66% highest critic average was a genuine surprise.
I know that the game was a buggy mess on release (pretty much all got fixed up in patches from what I remember) and the gameplay was basic open world mechanics with nothing even close to inspiring, but it was never unplayable for me and came with a fantastic story revolving around main character – Lincoln. A protagonist who was deeply interesting on so many levels and he wasn’t alone, there were so many other supporting characters who I was massively invested in and the story was genuinely super interesting, it was more than enough to keep me invested through some of those same old open world missions.
Poor and admittedly repetitive gameplay shouldn’t be what this game is remembered for, it should be remembered for its incredible characters, great storytelling, amazing looking 1960’s locations with an awesome soundtrack and an all round fun experience. 26% my ass.
Batman & Robin (Tim Burton)
Batman and Robin by Tim Burton. Honestly don’t get why people have such an issue with this movie, often the reason that it’s really camp as the reason people don’t like it but have you seen all the others? They’re ALL really campy and fun.
Batman and Robin is kind of like Titans that is currently airing on Netflix in that if you turn your brain off and just have a little bit of fun with it, then you will have a good time.
Besides, I know I am not really unbiased here as it has been well documented that I have a bit of an obsession with Batman in my Batman Diaries.
Iron Sky
For me, Iron Sky is one of my favourite stupid, poorly reviewed films to watch with some mates and some beers – Based on the thrilling theory that the Nazis survived World War 2 by constructing a moonbase on “The Dark Side of the Moon” (Even though the moon rotates…), and have been surviving and educating their fledgling children with the teachings of Adolf Hitler… Fast-forward to 2018, where James Washington, our protagonist, lands on the moon as part of a NASA expedition, and discovers the Nazis and their moonbase… What follows is nothing short of absolutely stupid… But here we go.
Effectively James is captured by the Nazis, ‘albinised’ (Yes. I shit you not.), the President of the United States adopts a Nazi-inspired political campaign, and then the Nazis are eventually defeated with a lot of discriminatory sexual innuendos via every country on the world launching a battleship to the moon to defeat the Nazis once and for all… Before all turning on eachother to harvest the moon’s valuable supplies of Helium. Yup.
…So why do I love this film despite it being so offensive? So discriminatory, and so blatantly stupid? Well, it’s a product of it’s time, and it’s fun to just take it at face value and laugh – Yes, this film will offend people, but much like South Park, Blazing Saddles or Monty Python even, these pieces of media, regardless of how crap or bad they are, are hilarious.
…And that’s why Iron Sky is my favourite crappily rated film of all time.
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