The Best, The Worst, The Overrated And The Underrated

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

This is a thread I've been intending to create for a while, but I've never gotten around to it for multiple reasons. Seeing as I'm in a thread starting mood tonight, I decided to post it tonight.

Simply put, this is a thread where you can voice your opinions on a subject matter pertaining to any media form, whether it be music, television, film, games or any other form you fancy, from Game of Thrones episodes to Final Fantasy games to times Johnny Depp says the word "Then". You will need four examples to voice your opinion on, and as the title of the thread suggests, one will be your favourite, one will be your least favourite, one will be the most overrated in your opinion and the final one will be the most underrated in your opinion.

I'll start things out with Metallica Songs. Metallica are among my favourite bands, and with 97 original songs to choose from, they offer a huge amount of variety, with some obviously better than others. Of course, with a fan base as large as Metallica's, you're obviously going to have songs that are appreciated too much as well as songs that aren't often talked about by the fans. Here's my take on things:

The best:

[YOUTUBE]sXPkmIwwobA[/YOUTUBE]

Metallica's best power ballad. Metallica's best song. The greatest metal song of all time. This song is beyond any doubt artistic mastery and it combines EVERYTHING good about Metallica songs. We get the power ballad values of Fade to Black, Welcome Home and The Unforgiven. We get an incredible musical build-up to the crescendo of the song. We get the powerful and proficient lyrics, before ending things with an awe-inspiring thrash out that blows even Battery out of the water. One is the greatest metal song of all-time, and if you want to call yourself a metal fan, listen to this song. It's essential listening and I really can't praise this song enough.

The worst:

[YOUTUBE]5CCfbvuNozU[/YOUTUBE]

Yeah, St Anger is the worst album from Metallica, but it's not god awful like people seem to suggest it is. This song on the other hand comes as close to god awful as Metallica really can get. I mean, NOTHING about this song is at all appealing. It's just an annoying, disorderly cacophony, with no redeemable features. Yes, I get St Anger is supposed to be an angry album, but there are songs which get that right on the album, whereas this is just an incoherent mess. A lot of people mention this as the worst Metallica song and it's not hard to see why.

The overrated:

[YOUTUBE]NcbAibPA2yY[/YOUTUBE]

This song is so mind-numbingly overrated. People are so quick to call this song a masterpiece when it's not much better than any Simple Plan song. The lyrics are OK, but James has written much better songs in the past. I normally find the disdain for Lars to be unwarranted, but the drumming here is quite annoying here I find. Not to mention, it's easily the worst of their power ballads and one of the weakest songs on the Black Album, if not the weakest. Yet this song is somehow at the top of the YouTube search bar over Unforgiven, Fade to Black and even One. It's not bad or anything, but the amount of praise it gets is beyond aggravating.

The underrated:

[YOUTUBE]EGFp7saTQEU[/YOUTUBE]

Metallica have a lot of underrated songs like Of Wolf and Man, To Live Is To Die, Escape and a good chunk of Reload, but this song takes the cake, probably because it's in my top 5 Metallica songs of all-time. I think the things that I love the most about this song are the message that it's trying to get across about the injustice of life and also the incredible guitar solo at the 5-minute mark. This song isn't just great, it's one of those special songs that hits a lot of marks for me, as well as being a well-crafted song in general, especially considering how hard a time Metallica were under during the recording. This song is starting to be more recognized now, but while it's deservedly overshadowed by One, I think it's the second best song off And Justice For All by a clear margin, and more attention needs to be drawn to it.

 

[The Butcher]

I'll go with a favorite video game series of mine: the Bioshock trilogy. Being that there are only three of them, I'll just go with the best, the underrated, and the overrated categories to fill this thread's criteria. I thought about including series predecessor System Shock to round things out. I never beat it, though, so that wouldn't be quite fair or completely honest. I love all three Bioshock games and enjoyed what I played of System Shock, so I have no qualms with leaving out a category that would imply that any of them are bad. Arguments could be made to reorder this list in any way, so I'm going with my gut while also including the XBox 360 (the system I played them on) Metacritic scores to bolster my own conclusions.

The Best:

96/100

The one that started it all is still my favorite hands down. There haven't been many gaming experiences that I've had during my adult life that have had me completely rapt. Bioshock represents one of them. I'd gladly submit this game as evidence in the ongoing "games as art" debate. Bioshock is what results when everything comes together in a video game. The gameplay is tight and the controls intuitive. The weapons and powers (callled "plasmids") are well-balanced, smartly integrated, and made available to the player in a natural way that serves both the story and gameplay progression. The graphics, sound, voice acting, and music create an unforgettable atmosphere. Its story is magnificent, and its themes and commentary pull no punches. It features a plot twist so acclaimed that there are many who've never played the game who know it. I wish I could develop a very specific type of amnesia so that every time I played this game felt like the first time. A masterpiece, plain and simple.

The Underrated:

88/100

The first, easiest, and frankly cheapest knock against Bioshock 2 is that it sends the player back into the same setting as its predecessor, the underwater city of Rapture. To me, this isn't anything resembling a problem. When a setting is as rich in personality and intrigue as Rapture, going back is a pleasure. The developers didn't rest on their laurels either. While the game's story is not on the level of Bioshock, it's damned good and makes for a worthwhile sequel and an enjoyable experience on its own. The themes and sociopolitical overtones of the first game are dulled in this sequel, but they are still there, are given a different perspective, and are used to good effect. The areas in which Bioshock 2 surpasses Bioshock are in the gameplay and graphics departments. As any good sequel should do, it takes what the original did and improves upon it. It's smoother, faster, and better than Bioshock in how it plays and looks. The sounds, acting, and music are again top-notch, but not markedly better or worse than the first game. Bioshock 2 also added a multiplayer game mode, and while it wasn't to the level of first-person shooters that are straight-up developed for multiplayer, it is a very fun and rewarding experience. It even serves as an extension of the story, acting as a sort of a "gaiden," if you will. The first Bioshock is what I'd call an essential game. If you haven't played it, you should. Bioshock 2 is not that, but then again few games are. It had an incredibly high bar to reach, and it came as close as one could have hoped.

The Overrated:

94/100

This might be a long one, because it pains me a little to put this game under this heading. Bioshock: Infinite is, like the original, an incredible experience that I'd use that specific amnesia for if I could. Notice, however, that I said "experience." It is simply not as good a video game as either Bioshock or Bioshock 2. It is so ridiculously strong in some non-gameplay related areas that I almost wish it wasn't a video game. The story, environment (the flying city of Columbia rather than the submerged Rapture), and characters of Bioshock: Infinite are engrossing. Its themes are some of the most mature and thought-provoking in gaming. The subtle hints as to what is actually going on in the plot are so cleverly done and seamlessly weaved into the game's fabric that I've honestly gone back and played sections of it just to see them. It contains some magnificent revelations, and its main twist is almost jarring. I simultaneouslly loved and hated it. It made sense but was baffling. As the pieces came together I didn't have a "eureka, I figured it out" moment; instead it was more of a "wooooooow, they really went this way with it" moment. I mean all of that in good ways. Few experiences in any medium are as evocative as Bioshock: Infinite. The things it touches on, from history and society, regret and absolution, and from religion and metaphysics, hit home with me. Unfortunately the actual video game, pew pew, shoot 'em up parts, didn't.

It plays fine and similarly to its predecessors, but it doesn't feel as tight. Bioshock 2 got the formula so right that Infinite felt like a step backwards. There is a grappling and rail riding element that I didn't care for at all. The weapons and powers (called "vigors" in this one) aren't as pleasing or memorable as the ones from the first two. What displeased me more than anything though, was that the hyper-violent combat sequences don't always mesh with or serve the story. The companion (a gameplay element I did very much like as she is one of the more useful AI sidekicks) at first seems very, very disturbed by the player's actions, but comes to grips with them too easily. In some later stages, it feels like the more interesting plot/thematic elements are subjugated in favor of action set pieces. Make no mistake, it's a fun game; but like I said, I almost wish it wasn't a game so that the tone that is set early on held true throughout.

The Bioshock trilogy is one of the finest intellectual properties its generation. All three are worth any gamer's time. I left out downloadable content, as that is optional. I look forward to future installments.

Good thread, cheese head.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I'll go with a video game series as well. My favorite series, Final Fantasy (Yeah, like no one saw that coming lol) so I will give some thoughts on why I placed these titles the way I did, and include a series ranking under each where it stands for me out of the 14 main titles (1 through 13, with X-2 and 13-2 as the 11th and 14th titles respectively)



The Best - Final Fantasy 7

Final Fantasy 7 deserves every last bit of praise that it gets. This masterpiece showed up back in 1997 and revolutionized the RPG genre. Every single game in the genre that came afterwards has been compared to the standard that FF7 set. It brought us the brilliant materia system that made it quite easy and fun to set your characters up for the next quest/battle. It gave us an iconic cast. Every single playable character is extremely memorable, some more than others but the value that each brings to the story is there. The mother of all video game spoilers can be found in this game in an act committed by Sephiroth, one of the greatest villains ever to appear in the genre. Then there's the amazing soundtrack that has aged very well. Last but not least, the cut-scenes. Say what you will about the graphics, but back in 1997 the graphics in this game were jaw-dropping. This game is not only the greatest Final Fantasy game but it is a top tier contender for the best in its genre and one of the best video games ever made. No gamer should miss out on it, for those few who have yet to play this legendary title.

Series ranking: 1 of 14



The Worst - Final Fantasy 2

This abomination of a game is hands down the worst in the series. It has one of the worst character development systems that I have ever seen. The experience point based levelling system found in most of the other titles is not present here. Instead you had to lose Health Points in order for your maximum amount to increase, use up your Magic Points casting spells for your MP total to increase, and so forth. It was extremely frustrating to get my stats to go up and I cannot fathom how anybody would enjoy this. The weapons and magic have a growth system that I didn't mind as much, the more you used them the more powerful they get and they can level up. This was seen again in other titles like Secret of Mana. The downside was that it took FOREVER to fully level up a weapon type of a spell for just Firion himself let alone the other party members. Speaking of the party members.... This game had a rotating 4th party member slot. If you had spent a great deal of time building up Layla, suddenly she leaves and now you're stuck once again with Gordon who sucked beyond belief. Or if you liked Minh/Minwu, too bad because eventually he leaves and now you have to start building up Josef instead. They saved the best for last in Leon, but the game almost made it useless to build up the 4th person since you knew the time was wasted due to them not staying permanently. The original NES version is pretty difficult, and I made it through it once. Never again. The PSX/GBA remakes were horrible, I find them to be WORSE than the 8 bit version. It was pure torture to play those titles and the extra content is simply not worth it. Final Fantasy 2 will likely never be dethroned as the worst title in the series. As a fanboy of the series, this is the only title that I go out of my way to ensure that people skip for their own good. Stay away from this game.

Series ranking: 14 of 14



The Overrated - Final Fantasy 10

Don't get me wrong here, FFX is not a bad game. I like it a lot myself. I just find it to be overrated by fans. It is really the only title that I see consistently get ranked higher by fans than it should be. The game was a step down in overall quality for the series and it has never recovered. The playable cast had a somewhat memorable bunch, but they pale in comparison to the parties found in nearly all of the older titles. The group should have been larger. The sphere grid is something I both hold in high regard for what a great character development tool that it was, but I also strongly dislike the fact that it results in everyone being able to do anything that everyone else can if you complete the whole thing. Seymour was a cool villain, but you can't rank him anywhere near superior villains from the other titles like Kefka, Sephiroth, or Kuja. The same can be said for Tidus in the hero role. Cloud, Zidane, and Cecil all come to mind quickly as better heroes. I may be a bit harsh in this, and to repeat myself I do really like this game, I just think it gets more hype than it should. It did give us characters who spoke with voice-overs for the first time in the series (disregarding a song from FF8 and Kefka's laugh in FF6) and it had Blitzball which was fun. I really liked being able to switch in anyone during battles and trying to change up my battle strategy to make it to where the enemies would get their turn later on depending on what actions I chose, so there's that. It ranks directly in the middle of the series for me, and I find it odd when people place it as their favorite or in their top tier. It's a good game, but it's not an A+ game.

Series ranking: 7 of 14



The Underrated - Final Fantasy 9

This game is extremely underrated. It ultimately falls short on being better than FF7 in overall quality, but it comes closer than any other attempt that followed the series' best name. The cast of playable characters is vastly underrated. Many of them are nearly as memorable as FF7's cast and I am surprised you do not hear about them that often anymore. Vivi's struggle with his identity, the bitterness Steiner feels for Zidane that over time grows into respect, the love story between Zidane and Garnet, and more are found in the cast. Of course this game did give us Quina.... but all of the other playable characters are characters I remember fondly and enjoyed watching their personal developments as the game went on. The soundtrack is beautiful and arguably the best overall in the series. It had a criminally underrated villain in Kuja. He was evil, manipulative, powerful, and had a dark past. He was everything you could want in an RPG villain, yet you rarely ever hear anything about him anymore. Sephiroth is hands down the better villain, but Kuja really deserves more mention in the greatest villain discussions. I loved this game's overall experience. There were a couple of things I really disliked about it such as there being multiple points of no return and having to keep so many items in stock in order to keep using them for synthesizing equipment needed for abilities otherwise not unlockable, but in the end this is a game that deserves MUCH more praise than it gets.

Series ranking: 4 of 14

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I'll go with movies, and start off with Halloween:

The Best

The undeniable benchmark for slasher films. It's John Carpenter's best film (although you could make an argument for The Thing), a true horror classic, and Halloween introduced us to Michael Myers, a memorable horror icon.

The Worst

You don't kill off the primary protagonist (Laurie) in the beginning. It's an ass backwards approach to start off the movie with your main course, and end things with the appetizer (they did the same thing with Jaime in Halloween 6 or The Curse Of Michael Myers). Halloween: Resurrection is on a short list of films that are capable of bringing legit feelings of anger out of me. Laurie is the main reason why Michael butchered dozens of helpless victims, because Laurie is Michael's primary target. In the end, Jaime Lee Curtis deserved a better send-off.

To make matters worse, you're stuck with a shitty voyeur reality game show story after Laurie's death, Busta Rhymes jumping around with karate moves, and terrible acting.

The Overrated

I don't hate H20, and Jaime Lee Curtis' return to the franchise feels refreshing. Still, a lot of Halloween fans have a bad habit of overrating this one too much, or they'll give it a pass for being the best in a mediocre and terrible pack (Resurrection & Curse) of sequels. So yeah, I enjoy H20 (poor Joseph Gordon-Levitt couldn't make it past the beginning), but the "don't forget about H20!" praise is too much sometimes.

The Underrated

Spoiler

Remove Halloween and III from the title, and we're talking about a more positive legacy for Season Of The Witch. Instead, Halloween and horror fans will always remember Season Of The Witch as the one film that disrupted the continuity (no Myers, Laurie, Loomis, etc.) in the Halloween franchise.

Season Of The Witch is a genuinely eerie and chilling horror film, with a mysterious and intriguing story, and Cochran is a solid villain. Although, I'll admit, the Ellie plot hole at the end annoys the shit out of me. Also, the opening credits/intro sequence is one of my all-time favorites.

[YOUTUBE]BICyGaJRT18[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Spidey Revivey]

I'll go ahead and do mine on Stephen King books. Been reading Doctor Sleep lately so I'm sorta in that zone at the moment. I'll only include the books that I have read completely. I haven't really picked up any recent books other than Dr. Sleep, so Cell and all of those are out.








The Best:

Perhaps the most critically acclaimed apocalyptic story that didn't need zombies or robots, The Stand takes you from the source of a biological mishap all the way to the epic battle between God and The Devil. Seriously, "my life for you". Featuring the most memorable cast of characters in his books like Trash Can Man, the saintly Mother Abagail, "M-o-o-n" Tom Cullen, and Stephen King's most illustrious villain, Randall Mother Fucking Flagg, this book is worth picking up if you love a true showdown between good and evil.


The Worst:

I hesitated putting this on here, because Rose Madder was one of the first King novels that I read front-to-back, and for the most part I did enjoy it. But I won't kid myself here; this one takes a bad left turn. Story starts off with a really in-depth look at spousal abuse and a wife overcoming it at a shelter while her husband (a cop) starts losing his mind and tracks her down. Left to just this, the story is pretty great and wouldn't be that bad a read. But then King tosses in supernatural elements like a magickal painting that transports both of them into that world, a greek mythos atmosphere, and sheer bat-fuckery just makes you sit the book down and wonder how any of it made even a little sense.


The Overrated:

Please postpone the shitstorm for just one moment. I truly loved this book and it has one of the most iconic horror scenes in print. Everyone knows the prom scene. Everyone loved Carrie going nuts with her powers. It was really great. As King's first novel, this is a Classic that I feel everyone should read.

But it's still overrated. The story relies completely on the end. You keep reading to get to that end, and then it's over. Nothing else really goes on from the time Carrie has her first period to the prom scene. And every movie adaptation seems to forget that Carrie is a chubby, pimply-faced outcast, giving credence that no matter how "re-imagined" this will play out on film, survivors will talk to the police, the same cute chick will have her monthly, dirty pillows, prom, kill mom, and roll credits. There's nothing else about this story. And for what little goes on, this novel is praised to the m-o-o-n. Compare it to It or The Shining, two great works from King, and it has very little.

As a big King fan, I hated typing that out, but it was the only book of his that I would consider overrated.


The Underrated:

Holy shit this story is insane. Do you want Power Rangers from Hell? Done. Autistic kid that's possessed? Sure. How about death by Gila monster? Oh yes- it's there. Desperation fans will dig it's unusual take on the same characters presented in that particular book. 90s cartoon nostalgia and spaghetti western enthusiasm will come at ya full-swing when hell breaks loose thanks to a series of vans that terrorize the small town of Wentworth, OH.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

I'll keep my metal trend going on for a bit with another metal band's songs, Iron Maiden. Apart from the overrated section, it's easy to think of at least half a dozen of the best songs, considering they have a library of 145 songs. Here's my take on things.

The best:

[YOUTUBE]ZO6giM9UAv0[/YOUTUBE]

This is another one of those songs that simply defines metal and can get any metalhead's blood pumping. This song opens my favourite album of all-time, and nearly all of Maiden's concerts, and it's not hard to see why at all. The song is about the air battle for Britain in 1940 during the German's attempted invasion. Every band member adds an immense amount of value to the track, the lyrics are sharp, hard-hitting and to the point and Bruce gives them justice with perhaps his best vocal work with the band. There's a reason this song is a metal classic among both hardcore and main-stream fans: It's an outstanding song.

The worst:

[YOUTUBE]pFHD28p-yDw[/YOUTUBE]

I liked the Blaze Bayley era on the whole, and I maintain that Virtual XI is a better album than No Prayer For The Dying. Blaze had some great songs with the band such as The Clansman, Virus and the epic Sign Of The Cross. But this song is just poorly put together. People rag on The Angel and the Gambler for being repetitive, but this song is even worse, and at least TAATG is pretty good at times. But here, Blaze keeps repeating the words "Don't look to" and it's honestly just as bad as "KILL KILL KILL KILL" from All Within My Hands (St Anger). It's not excruciatingly terrible, but it's a bad song that does a lot of damage to a commonly despised album.

The overrated:

[YOUTUBE]MZDB0mAMkA4[/YOUTUBE]

This, to me is the only song that really is overrated in Iron Maiden's entire discography. People can bitch and moan about Run To The Hills and Number Of The Beast being overplayed by mainstream fans, but this song is revered by the hardcore fans, and even some mainstream ones, and it's really not their best work, not even the best on the album. Granted, it's a good song, very good I might add, but there are dozens of better songs in Maiden's vast catalogue. The story telling is good, but they've done it better. The lyrics are good, but again, it's been surpassed. And the instruments are very good, but you kind of expect that from Maiden anyway. There are songs that are far more deserving of the praise this song gets, and while it's still a very good song, it doesn't warrant the amount of praise as it gets.

The underrated:

[YOUTUBE]p_K6sl4jp3A[/YOUTUBE]

Now, there's a massive amount of underrated Iron Maiden songs like Prodigal Son, Virus, Sea of Madness, Flash of the Blade, Judas Be My Guide, Starblind, a chunk of Blaze Bayley songs and of course, Revelations, and there's much more not jumping to me at the moment. But the song that trumps all of that is this song, just because it is so flawlessly put together, and yet a risky and audacious move for the band, being the first synthesized song to be heard by most fans (mostly because Wasted Years has no synths). And it just knocks it out of the park. This is the song that needs the praise Dance of Death gets, because every second of this song is incredible. The opening bass line is some of Steve Harris's best work, the explosive riffs are captivating, Bruce sings his heart out and the two guitar solos are incredible. This is a song that needs its popularity exchanged with Dance of Death, as most people only seem to say "It's a good song, not the best off the album though.", which is exactly what DoD is, but this song isn't. For an experimentation effort, this song is a masterpiece. If there's any Maiden fans here, seriously, give this song more of a chance.

And if you're interested in my current top ten:

10: The Trooper (Piece of Mind)
9: Phantom of the Opera (Iron Maiden)
8: Revelations (Piece of Mind)
7: The Evil That Men Do (Seventh Son of a Seventh Son)
6: Hallowed Be Thy Name (The Number of the Beast)
5: Paschendale (Dance of Death)
4: 2 Minutes to Midnight (Powerslave)
3: Caught Somewhere in Time (Somewhere in Time)
2: Fear of the Dark (Fear of the Dark)
1: Aces High (Powerslave)

 

[Dagger Dias]

I'll join in on the music side of this discussion and this will be regarding Nightwish albums.



The Best - Oceanborn

The band's best effort, without a shadow of a doubt. This brilliant album has 12 tracks and 11 of those 12 are 5 star tracks. With the exception of "Devil & the Deep Dark Ocean, which I'm not that fond of, I love everything on this album. I highly recommend anything else on the album to anybody who has not heard it before. No fan of symphonic metal should miss out on it. It has a good mix of heavier and softer material, all of which is beautifully done. I love it. It's one of my favorite albums ever, not just out of Nightwish's material.



The Worst - Angels Fall First

This is their worst album. Not to say that it's awful, because it's not. However, when you judge it based off of all of Nightwish's other releases, it is of the lowest quality. They were still experimenting and figuring out what their style would be (which we found out and then some, on "Oceanborn, which was the 2nd album) so I can appreciate the difference found on this album. There are a few gems on here such as "Elvenpath" or "Tutankhamen", but unless you are a hardcore fan of the band wanting to see how they started out, you might not like it.



The Overrated - Once

This album is the main one that I see top people's lists when I really feel it shouldn't. It's a strong effort and has a lot of great songs on it but I disagree with placing it higher on rankings than Oceanborn, Century Child, and even Imaginaerum. The best songs off of those albums are better than the best songs off of this album and overall it is not of as high of a quality as some make it out to be. This was the last album Tarja did with the band, so that may be part of the reason it gets placed up on a pedestal by fans. It's a really good album, but it is certainly not their best.



The Underrated - Imaginaerum

It's ridiculous how underrated this album is. I absolutely love it and recommend it to anyone. The Tarja fans might want you to think otherwise, but it is just as good as the band's earlier material and I personally put it in their top tier. The fanbase saw a division during the time Anette was the singer and while I can understand the struggle with accepting change, Anette was better than the fans of the older material want you to believe. She did an excellent job on this album and so did the band as a whole. Give it a chance, you could end up being pleasantly surprised by these songs. There is also a 2nd disc on some editions containing instrumental versions of the songs.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

I'll come back to music in a bit, but for now, I'll jump aboard the movie train and look at Star Wars. I might be in the minority here, and feel free to hang him as a criminal for this, but I like the prequels. The originals are superior, but I still feel the prequels did a good job with what they had to work with. Here's what I think:

The best:

This is one of my favourite movies of all-time, and for good reason. This is a very powerful adventure with an immense amount of work put into it. It features unbelievable scenery and effects before the time of CGI, including one of the best movie moments ever in the Battle of Hoth. You also have the marshland Dagobah and the panoramic Cloud City, featured in this film, and all three look superb. Nearly every moment is captivating to the audience and the twist is, in my opinion, the greatest twist of movie history, and has cemented itself in pop culture forever. It's an incredible film that deserves all the praise it gets.

The worst:

This film isn't THAT bad. It's the worst of the series, but I still pop it in every now and again. I was four years old when this movie came out, and as a result, I never really underwent the 22 year long anticipation for the next movie in the series, so I came into TPM with a clean slate. And I enjoyed it on the whole. I thought Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor were good enough leads, the final lightsaber duel is one of the best moments in the series and I seemed to get wrapped up enough in it to ignore the goofy moments. But upon closer evaluation, the focus on political talk is a pretty poor decision for a movie centred for the entire family, some dialogue is completely unnecessary, most notably the explanation of the force and it does tend to drag at times. I will concede that this movie was probably a big disappointment upon the time of its release, but it's far, far away from some of the worst movies I've ever seen.

And this may surprise you, but I never found Jar Jar to be as annoying as people suggest he is. I can see why people feel that way, but I'm pretty indifferent to him

The overrated:

I actually think a prequel movie is better than this movie. Not that this movie is terrible, it's still a great film, but it has inherent flaws, most notably that the Jabba's Palace section of the movie really seems to drag on and on, along with featuring the anticlimactic death of Boba Fett (yes, I know he survives, but that's going into EU territory). Also, the Empire are made out to be total jokes in the final ground battle, being slaughtered by the Ewoks. I honestly think that scene could have been handled much better. There's still some great parts to this movie, such as the final duel and Vader's redemption, but it's by far the worst of the original trilogy. It's still better than two of the prequels though.

The underrated:

This is, overall, a damn solid movie with a lot more good moments than bad. The huge opening to the movie is absolutely riveting, all the way to the crash landing in Coruscant, and the acting from a fair amount of the main cast is extremely good at times. The final two battles between Anakin and Obi Wan, and Yoda and the Emperor are great fun, and General Grievous makes for a good supporting villain, even if he did pop up out of nowhere. Even Hayden Christensen manages to do quite well at parts. Sure, the love talk damages the movie, but it's much less visible than in Clones, and it's more than made up for it by the amazing Opera house scene. This is a great film which is denounced by most for being a prequel film, which is really unfair, as it is head and shoulders above the rest of the prequels, and even better than ROTJ.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I'll go with Fright Night.

The Best

You can't start a discussion for great 80's horror and great vampire films without Fright Night 1985. It's the perfect mix of humor and ghostly horror, and Chris Sarandon's (Jerry Dandrige) smooth performance as a charismatic Casanova is something to remember. It's a true gem from the 80's with a great soundtrack, and Fright Night '85 is one of the best horror comedies ever made.

The Worst

It's a shameless cash grab sequel. They tried to promote this one as a sequel to the 2011 remake, but there's no connection whatsoever to that film. They don't mention Jerry or his demise, and they used the Fright Night name to sucker fans into paying for or renting this shabby direct-to-video sequel.

Why is Jaime Murray's last name Dandrige? Is she Jerry's sister? They never provide any hints or clues to answer the questions, and they're important questions, because you know, this is supposed to be a sequel. A terrible overall cast, poor production values, and they turned Peter Vincent into some reality show host douchebag. Hats off to Jaime Murray for a good performance as Gerri (I can't stand the movie, but it's an nice play on words for Jerry Dandrige), but she's the lone highlight in this film.

The Overrated

It's more of a default choice, but a few changes in the 2011 remake annoy me. For starters, they turned Anton Yelchin's Charley into this cunty hipster during the early stages of the movie, and he's a very unlikeable character until Charley accepts the realistic chance of Jerry being a vampire. And Christopher Mintz-Plasse is too annoying and unbearable as Evil Ed. Stephen Geoffreys was actually funny as Evil Ed in the original, but Mintz-Plasse (I always cringe, when Mintz-Plasse says "we could've rocked this evil shit together") tries too hard throughout the movie.

The Underrated

"It's not as good as original" is the one of the more consistent complaints for the 1988 sequel. Well, that's true, but I still love Fright Night Part II. In fact, there's a biased part of me that would put Part II in The Best spot, but I know that's not the right move.

Regine Dandrige (Jerry's sister) is the female counterpart for Jerry in the original. Julie Carmen's performance is spot on, she's the stand out star in this film, and it's not even close. Although, I have a few pet peeves for Part II.

1. Charley doesn't know Regine is Jerry's sister. It's a HUGE gap in logic/plot hole. Regine is targeting Charley, because she wants revenge for her brother's death, and you can't ignore or forget about her motivations. On top of that, Roddy McDowall's Peter Vincent is the only one, who knows about the brother sister connection between Charley and Regine and he never tells Charley?

2. For some odd reason, Charley doesn't believe in vampires anymore, and Peter is stuck in the same "vampires aren't real!" dilemma as the story unfolds. It's silly, because after the battle with Jerry and Amy's transformation in the original, we're supposed to suspend disbelief to the point, where we can actually buy into Charley and Peter denying the existence of vampires? Come on now.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

I'll jump into the gaming fray, and do Mortal Kombat, probably my favourite fighting game series of all-time.

The best:

Spoiler

After the lukewarm Armageddon and DC Universe crossover, it was time for Mortal Kombat to shape up or ship out to almost all fans. And they most certainly shaped up with their remake, which I honestly believe to be better than the originals. Keeping true to the series's roots, whilst making interesting and proficient additions to the series resulted in an excellent game and a much needed boost for the franchise. The game plays absolutely superbly for both beginners and experts, as well as everyone between, the story mode is unique, compelling and very engaging unlike most stories in fighting games, there are a large amount of playable characters, there is a huge amount of unlockable content that will keep you playing for a very long time and it is the bloodiest game in the series yet. This game really helped put a struggling franchise back on the map again, and it is one of the best examples of a video game revival out there.

The worst:

The Mortal Kombat franchise had pretty much peaked after 3, and with more and more fighters going into 3D, Midway took a slightly different approach, diving into 2.5D for Mortal Kombat 4. The result was a game that looked and played dreadfully, a cluster of uninspired characters and killed Mortal Kombat forever in the arcades at least. Honestly, this is among some of the worst fighting games I have ever played. Maybe not on the level of Shaq Fu or Rise of the Robots, but still awful.

The overrated:

The original really isn't anything special. In fact, it's by far the weakest of the original trilogy. With a small cast of characters, and ultimately clunky gameplay, the fame it attained mostly comes from the controversy that it caused that helped start the franchise. While that's important to the series as a whole, I can't excuse people declaring this game to be better than the rest for that reason because it really isn't. It's not a bad game and the shock value is understandable at the time, but compared to a good portion of the other games in the series, it's quite mediocre.

The underrated:

For a while, this was my favourite game in the series. While not many people liked the addition of the Run function and the Dial-Up Combos, I personally thought they added a much needed speed boost to the games. The character cast is interesting despite the lack of Scorpion and a few other fan favourites, the fatalities have been expanded upon to a degree and the difficulty is much more fair than it was in MK2, which was a pain to complete without a lot of Continue screens. MK3 is a great game and easily one of the best in the series, but fans don't seem to like it because it's different, which I think is unfair.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

I'm gonna go with Spidey's line of thought and Stephen King books...

The Best

To me, this is the quintessential King novel - childhood and friendship and how growing up can alter that, give it a couple of tweaks and it is 'Stand By Me' (or 'The Body' in 'Different Seasons' if you will). However, it surpasses other novels were he has the young / older dynamic by having it be the SAME characters and having the narrative jumping back and forward from the memories of their "Losers' Club" childhood in Derry, Maine to how they now mix as now different adult entities. The added bonus it throws in is a truly spectacular monster / villain in Pennywise - charming and terrifying in equal measure and I always wonder if a certain Pixar series would have come around if it wasn't for the fact that this pesky clown was just as scared of 'Stuttering' Bill and his friends as they were of him?

The Worst

Ugh! Two words to drive fear into the hearts of most King fans - "Shit weasels". If you don't know what these are, please don't bother looking them up! This novel really grates with me because it ties in so many elements that usually mean a great King novel (friendship, childhood memories, loyalty, humanity, Maine) and render them meaningless with lazy writing and gross out for gross out's sake.

The Underrated

When people are discussing the early King classics - this is the one that ALWAYS gets overlooked and that truly disappoints (actually; hurts) me because it was something very original and close to my experiences at that time. King had (and to a degree, still does) specialized in preteens - this was his dip into high school life and while my Wee Country has many variances to the US, King hit AND hit AND hit on the nuances of every school from the class dynamics to the two losers (one boy, one girl) to the friendship one of the jock's had with someone who didn't fit that group at all. First loves (first with Christine you understand, Leigh came later), childhood friendships straining as adulthood beckons - it hit all the spots for a similarly aged FF4L. Like 'It', the evils are also exceptional - from the really odious Roland D Lebay to the jealous, spiteful, murderous (and yet very much loving) Christine to supporting bads like Arnie's overpowering mother and the school bullies who delight in making his life hell.

For me, 'Christine' is THE perfect entry into the world of Stephen King.

The overrated

Wow, tougher than "the worst" because I've to pick one of King's best regarded novels and I am a massive King fan... but I didn't really struggle on my choice. 'Cujo' is like gangster movies to me; I appreciate the workings and the strength of the characters... but I just don't get (for want of a better word) them. 'Cujo' is a an incredibly bleak book pretty much from beginning to end which, to me, just isn't King and isn't what attracted me to his writings were good guys may die but good does win out and there is hope going forward.

 

[DarksideEric]

May I do something a bit different and not adhere to a single franchise and instead do a genre?

Well, I'm doing it anyway.

Fighting games are one of my all time favorite genre of games, despite my current lack of skill at them. So rather than trying to pick apart a single franchise for Best, Worst, Under and Overrated, I'll do it for the whole.

Best:

Street Fighter

No surprise from me here, right? There's a reason Street Fighter has stood the test of time so well and is the premiere fighting game all around the world in every major fighting game tournament. The series started off as a hard as shit game with the original Street Fighter and has pioneered so many mechanics for fighting games and video games in general. Street Fighter created combos (SFII), special moves (SF), super moves (SSFIIT), etc. I always enjoyed it over Mortal Kombat (especially in the original days) because each character had their own special moves as well as their own normal attacks, unlike MK which everyone had the exact same regular attacks. Thanks to Street Fighter, pretty much every other fighting game got its start.

Worst:

Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi

This pile of "please God no more, make it stop!"

It may not actually be the worst out there (because there's some that are just so... so... bad), but it's certainly one that disappointed me a whole lot. I hated the projectile mechanics of the blasters, I hated the Lightsaber baseball bats, I hated the engine... it just wasn't a fun game once you played it for more than 5 minutes and the appeal of Star Wars wore off.

Underrated:

Melty Blood

A fighting game based off of a hentai visual novel. Weird right? PC/PS2 fighting game goodness here and one of two franchises (Fate/Stay being the other) that made for some really excellent fighting games. The animation is nice, lots of mechanics for different styles of gameplay that can arguably make it easy for any 2D fighting game fan to get into. It gets some tournament love but not a lot, especially since it's pretty much considered an "underground game," since despite being on a major console it didn't blow up. One of my lesser known favorites.

Overrated:

Marvel vs. Capcom

What?

First things first: I love me some MvC, it was one of my favorite games to play (especially MvC2), but got damn is this game overrated to the point where people attempt to overshadow Street Fighter itself with it, let alone all other fighting games. MvC as a series is fun to play... but often times it's a balancing mess. MvC2 and 3 for a while, like many fighting games had some characters that made other characters obsolete. However in my estimation MvC2 did it so well that the game itself should have only had between 5-10 characters to choose from rather than the 56 or so it had. Characters like Ryu were pretty much worthless against someone running Sent/Storm/Mags. Hell, nearly all the Capcom characters, except for Captain Commando and Strider weren't useful at all. Combine that with the ridiculous amount of infinite combos in the game (especially in MvC3) where one touch can mean the death of a character (sometimes a team) and just... this game ranges from decent to fun in terms of watchability, but I will not play it again after my initial playthrough.

 

[TootsieBear]

I'm going to do a post about the eight Harry Potter films.

The Best:
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Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone is purely magical for the whole family. A perfect transition from book to film. The scenery, the characters, etc. Everything works perfectly and leaves a lasting impression on the viewer.

The Worst:
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in my opinion is the worst Harry Potter film. Everything just feels rushed, unfinished, and dark. In the book your introduced to various new characters, relationships, and transformations former characters. Also, the death of Professor Dumbledore is more sad in the books, then in the film. But I like the touching tribute with the wands and vanquishing of the Dark Mark.

Underrated:
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in my opinion are the great book/film of the whole series. Everything was perfect! There were parts where everything was lighthearted and funny, but on the other hand it can be serious and dark. A perfect treat

Overrated:
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in my opinion is the worst Harry Potter film of the series. While Part 1 was a great turn around from the fifth and sixth film; Part 2 quickly ruined whatever credibility it had. Like Half-Blood Prince it felt rushed, unfinished, and dark. I love the scenes with Professor Snape. But everything else just felt too silly to be taken serious. Everyone cheering when Harry Potter revels that he was alive, or the poorly executed battles between the characters. Imagine if they really wanted to add more detail, more concentration on the battles, etc. Everything would have so much more meaning.

 

[Alex]

Let's talk about one of my favourite bands ever. The Red Hot Chili Peppers and their albums

The Best:

Spoiler

For me this was what the band had been building to. The previous three albums were building towards this and shows what the band could do once they got rid of the rough edges. Sure it involved line-up changes and the death of their original guitarist but this (I feel) is their best album. The songs are just well oiled funk rock songs and shows the beginnings of Anthony Kiedis' vocal range. The cover's of Higher Ground (by Stevie Wonder) and Fire (Jimi Hendrix) are brilliant as are Knock Me Down and Taste The Pain.

The Worst:

Spoiler

It's not so much that it's a bad album per se. It's just spread to thin. As it's a double album there's a lot of filler. It certainly could've been better if they'd condensed it to one CD. there's some good songs here and there on each disc like Dani California, Snow, Readymade and Desecration Smile but between each good song there's a ton of filler which makes me put this as the worst album

The Overrated:

Spoiler

And

It's not that these are bad albums they aren't, it's just the way everyone sucks these albums dicks. Yes Suck My Kiss, Give It Away, Under The Bridge, Scar Tissue, Californication and Road Trippin' are great songs. But personally the best songs in my opinion (especially on Blood Sugar Sex Magik) are the ones that weren't singles (My Lovely Man, The Power Of Equality)

The Underrated:

Spoiler

I fucking love this album. This arguably is my second favourite one. I love Dave Navarro as a guitarist and liked the heaviness he brought to the band. Songs like Warped and One Big Mob have the weird heaviness I like and songs like Tearjearker and Transcendence are some of the bands best ballads.

It's a shame that the band hasn't played any songs from it since the initial tour as John Frusciante didn't want to. I don't know what Josh Klinghoffer thinks of it though

 

[Dagger Dias]

Linkin Park has been on my mind lately ever since discovering their new single "Until It's Gone" for their upcoming album in June.... So, this post will be regarding Linkin Park's previous albums. Just the original material, not the remixes or collaboration albums. If those are included then my post would remain the same other than what I listed as the worst, which would change to Recharged. I was highly disappointed in Recharged, but this is about their original material not the remixes. Let's get started.





The Best - Hybrid Theory

You know those few albums where you can listen to them and never have to skip a track? Hybrid Theory falls under that category. Enjoyable from beginning to end. This is generally ranked by fans as the band's best album, and rightfully so. There is not a single bad track on it. As far as overall quality is concerned, they will probably never be able to top it. Papercut, One Step Closer, and In the End have all aged well and don't sound like they are 14 years old at all. If for some reason you have yet to listen to this album, give it a try sometime.





The Worst - Minutes To Midnight

This album is easily the worst of their original material. They were experimenting with their sound a lot at the time and it divided the fanbase when this cd with a drastic departure from the older two albums was released, and they haven't quite recovered in terms of album success. It's not a horrible album; but when you compare it to the other releases one has to come in last place and each the four other albums are of superior quality. It did give us "What I've Done", at least, which is one of their best songs. I don't recommend this cd to anyone but the fans who want all of the band's discography in their collection.






The Overrated - Meteora

Wait, hear me out first. I don't dislike this album by any means. I just think it gets more praise and higher rankings by fans than it should. On this effort they tried too hard to produce a similar product to the material Hybrid Theory and it did not recapture the magic of the original. There's a number of strong tracks on it though such as Faint, Lying from You, Numb, and more which are worth a listen. I put it in the middle when ranking the discography overall.





The Underrated - Living Things

It's an absolute shame that this has not seen more success. It is their 2nd best losing only to Hybrid Theory and with the exception of two weaker tracks on it, the album contains their best material ever. Lost in the Echo, Burn It Down, Roads Untraveled, and Powerless all come to mind quickly as examples of the amazing music this cd has to offer. Roads Untraveled is arguably the most beautiful song they have written. This underrated effort by Linkin Park is a highly recommended cd to anybody. If you haven't heard it yet, you really should.