GameSpot Entertainment Reviews

The Last of Us is often heralded as a crowning achievement in storytelling, but that praise is sometimes couched in a common derogatory caveat aimed at many other games, too: "It's a great story--for a video game." The Last of Us on HBO, co-run by Chernobyl's Craig Mazin and the game series' own Neil Druckmann, is a marvelous proof of concept for PlayStation--and really any brand seeking to bring its beloved games to prestige television. Whereas the history of video game adaptations is littered with abject disasters at worst and lovable family movies at best, The Last of Us proves...

You know that brief, horrible moment when you're visiting an older relative's house, and you sit down in front of the TV and realize that they have yet to disable motion smoothing? Even if you've never heard the term before, there's a good chance you're familiar with the look of it--suddenly your favorite show looks like it's a soap opera or shot as a home movie and all the actors look just this side of uncanny--not enough to look totally inhuman but enough that it's distracting. Avatar: The Way Of Water dares to ask the question that was on absolutely...

Back in 1988, Ron Howard directed a fantasy movie written by George Lucas and Bob Dolman that followed a character named Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis), who becomes the caretaker of a child he finds. That child happens to be a chosen one foretold to take down evil Queen Bavmorda. Ultimately, Bavmorda was banished, and while the movie didn't make box office records when it was released, it's still a beloved movie by many people. And now, a sequel series has arrived on Disney+. However, 1988 and 2022 are two entirely different eras of filmmaking, can Willow live up to those...

To look back on The Walking Dead, I could think of the gaffes--there were plenty after all. I could think more fondly of the incredible visual effects and the showcase zombie kills that seemed to be a mandate for each episode no matter what else was going on. I could think of the action set pieces that, at different times, were riveting or drawn out too long, or the alternatingly poignant or awkward story decisions. The Walking Dead has been an imperfect, sometimes frustrating series with incredible highs and lousy lows for the last 12 years of my life, but...

While you might have expected it to debut around Halloween, which would have been a far more logical move, Netflix is getting ready to drop Wednesday--an off-shoot of the Addams Family franchise--just in time for Thanksgiving. Why Thanksgiving? Either Netflix realized the traditional spooky season was busy this year or the release is a deep dive nod to 1993's Addams Family Values, which is technically a Thanksgiving movie. The reasoning doesn't matter, though, because Wednesday is finally here, and it was worth the wait.Wednesday follows the titular eldest Addams child, played by Scream and X standout Jenna Ortega, as she...

The first Black Panther movie was both a watershed moment for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and superhero movies at large with its incredible scale and scope, bolstered by its all-star cast and the directorial vision of Ryan Coogler. A lot has changed in the four years since its release, however, both outside the fictional shared universe and within it. In 2020, star Chadwick Boseman tragically passed away, forcing the script and the plans for the movie to be completely reconfigured while the COVID-19 pandemic put strains on production. Meanwhile, Disney pushed full steam ahead on MCU related content on Disney+,...

Director Neil Marshall delivered one of the better horror films of the mid-00s: The Descent. He's also been the mind behind Doomsday and Dog Soldiers--two more action films with a lot of suspense. He already has a few classics in his arsenal; however, his latest film, The Lair, won't live up to his legacy. It's middling at best and at its worst, it's just a Resident Evil movie without all those pesky zombies.The Lair follows Lt. Sinclair (Charlotte Kirk) of the Royal Air Force as she's shot down over an area of Afghanistan where she meets up with a squad...

The Halloween franchise has been going for so long, that there are far more questionable or bad entries than there are good ones. Sure, the original is an all-time masterpiece, and there is plenty to love about some of the sequels, but like many slasher franchises, its track record is marked with half-baked ideas, convoluted plots, and a rotating cast of forgettable characters. The franchise was semi-rebooted in 2018 with a high-quality direct sequel to John Carpenter's original, and it boded well for future entries in the franchise. Now, with Halloween Ends bringing the current trilogy of films to a...

A man with chainsaws coming out of his arms and coming out of his face sounds like something exceptionally horrific, like some sort of failed '80s horror movie with really memorable VHS cover art. However, in the realm of anime, it works perfectly. On October 11 at 9 AM PT on Crunchyroll, the first episode of Chainsaw Man arrives, and it's the perfect way to kick off the Halloween season.The first episode of Chainsaw Man, which GameSpot was provided for review, adapts Chapter 1 of Volume 1 of the manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto. The story follows the adventures of Denji,...