Steven S. DeKnight

Summary: Predators and Prey is more of a collection of stand-alone issues than it is a single cohesive story arc. However, they're all tied together by the fallout of the events of "Harmonic Divergence", the first issue, in which Harmony gets her own MTV reality show, sparking a new pop-culture trend for vampires... and sparking a flame of outrage and fear towards the Slayers who are preying on the new celebrities. In "Swell", Satsu and Kennedy intercept a monster bearing a terrible cargo - show more a vamped-out Hello Kitty-esque doll, who's not nearly as cute and cuddly as he appears. "Predators and Prey" involves Buffy and Andrew tracking down a group of slayers who've gone rogue in Italy. "Safe" checks in with Giles and Faith as they visit a Slayer Sanctuary that is not all that it claims to be. In "Living Doll", Dawn gets her turn in the spotlight as we finally get an end to - and an explanation of - the thricewise business. There are also some short stories (3-4 pages) included at the end, featuring a day on set with Harmony, and an ad campaign for Vampy Cat.

Review: I was initially a little bit disappointed when I realized that this wasn't a single arc - I wanted a good solid story. But then I realized that multiple short pieces allow more time to check in with multiple characters, and *then* I realized that one of those short pieces starred Giles and Faith, so I was a happy camper again. Perhaps the downside to spending so much time with Harmony, Satsu, Kennedy, Andrew, Giles, Faith, and Dawn is that there's an unfortunate scarcity of Xander, and zero Willow. Still, each of the stories (except maybe "Harmonic Divergence" - Harmony gets old *real* fast) was very entertaining, moved the various pieces of the story along nicely, and was full of Buffy-style banter. (I particularly liked watching Andrew and Buffy team up.) The art continues to be good, although there were a few places where I couldn't always tell who a character was supposed to be at first glance. But, overall, it was a fun, fast read; made me giggle at more than a few places; and has at least temporarily sated my Buffyverse cravings. Now when's the next one coming out? 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Don't read this series unless you've seen the show, and don't read this volume until you've read the other four first. "Harmonic Divergence" would probably make sense on its own, but all of the rest of them build pretty heavily on what's come before. show less

Pacific Rim: Uprising takes place 10 years after the first Pacific Rim movie. Parts of the world have recovered from the past kaiju attacks, while other parts are still in ruins. Jake Pentecost, the son of Stacker Pentecost, who sacrificed himself to save the world in the first movie, is living as a thief in Santa Monica, California, one of the still-ruined parts of the world. Jaeger parts fetch the best prices, but they're also heavily guarded - he and another thief, Amara Namani, are show more caught and put in jail. Jake's adoptive sister, Mako, gives him a choice: he can either go to prison for a very long time, or he can reenlist in the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC) and help train young cadets, including Amara. Jake reluctantly agrees to reenlist.

Amara is a huge Jaeger enthusiast and excited to be given a chance to pilot one, but first she'll have to learn to trust and work together with other people. Unfortunately, there isn't much time, as as the PPDC finds itself up against an upgraded threat to humanity.

It's been a long time since I watched the first movie. I could remember the whole drifting and neural handshake stuff, but I couldn't remember much of the story or most of the characters. I didn't realize until after I watched this movie that I owned a copy of the first one, or I'd have started with a rewatch of that one. I suppose this wasn't a bad way to go, though, because it meant I wasn't constantly comparing it to the first movie.

If you like action scenes featuring massive robots and monsters, this is a fun movie, although it does take a while for the big monsters to show up. I had forgotten just how enormous the Jaegers were, but the initial chase scene between Amara's homemade Scrapper and a real Jaeger was a great reminder. The last big battle between the Jaegers and the kaiju led to lots of building smashing, which got me to thinking about action movies, action scenes, and collateral damage. This movie works hard to hide the fact that a lot of civilians would have died after the kaiju emerged, despite showing a few scenes in which people ran from them. It's doubtful that an entire city full of people would manage to evacuate to the underground shelters in time, and yet there wasn't a single person visible in all the structures that got smashed.

John Boyega and Cailee Spaeny were great as Jake and Amara, and they also made a good pair. However, their stories did make it feel a bit like two separate but complementary movies had been smashed together. In one, Jake was the rebellious son of a war hero, realizing that, even though he wasn't his father, the world needed someone to fight for it again. The other was a teen action movie starring a bunch of scrappy kids who learn to work together and save the day. Character-wise, the first got a bit more attention than the second. I wish there had been time to get to know the other cadets and show more training scenes.

In one of the extras, the director talks about all of the Jaegers and kaiju as distinct characters. That's another one of the areas where I felt like the movie could have been stronger, except there just wasn't enough time. I constantly mixed up a couple of the Jaegers - the only one I could easily identify in an instant was Saber Athena, who was orange. The kaiju were just a bunch of screaming monster things - I didn't even realize until I watched the extras that they all had names and completely separate abilities.

One question I had that I don't think was ever answered: what happened to Raleigh, Mako's Jaeger partner? A bit of googling indicates that this question was answered in a prequel novel, but as a viewer who hasn't read that (and didn't know it existed), I thought it odd that his name was never once mentioned.

All in all, this wasn't the best movie ever, but it had some good giant robot action scenes and was fun, as long as you didn't think about the details too much (I'm still wondering how Amara managed to take care of herself and somehow build Scrapper from scratch, considering what survival in post-attack Santa Monica must have been like for a child).

Extras:

Deleted scenes with optional commentary by the director, a director commentary track, and a bunch of "making of" featurettes. The deleted scenes were okay, but I really enjoyed the featurettes. I didn't bother listening to the movie commentary.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

This volume had a pretty distinct shift in tone and story from the previous Season 8 volumes, and it was fun in its own (slightly gimmicky) way! The Satsu and Dawn issues were the strongest; they did a good job of continuing or wrapping up plot points from earlier all while developing the bigger picture (although Kennedy is mega-annoying here). Also three cheers for seeing more of the FaithxGiles team-up!! That issue felt like random filler but it was enjoyable to see them in action show more nevertheless. :) show less

Harmony (remember her?) gets her own reality television show. Twilight, the evil organization trying to stop the slayers, creates some seriously creepy vampire cat toys and uses Harmony's show to turn people against slayers and pro-vampire. Buffy and Andrew take on an evil sect of slayers. Giles and Faith are doing their thing, trying to help slayer outcasts. Dawn is now a doll and in the hands of some creepy guy. Volume 5 is like the middle of a season where there might be an episode here show more and there related to the big bad, but most of them are off the wall crazy things caused by other folks.

First of all, let's talk about Harmony. I never liked her, which I suppose is how you are supposed to feel. However, I would have been totally happy with her not coming back at all, as I am mostly just annoyed by her. If she had to come back, though, this was a good way to do it. She definitely is reality show material. I'm guessing Harmony Bites would air on MTV. No, I would not watch it.

These Twilight plot lines were pretty great, much better than the previous, to me anyway. The evil toys were just funny, in the same way that the giant Stay Puft marshmallow man at the end of Ghostbusters is. The other prong of their attack, making slayers into the bad guys in the eyes of the public, was pretty nifty as well. It definitely plays nicely off of the vampire craze, suggesting that humans are dumb enough to want to become vamps even in the Buffy-verse with the nasty forehead wrinkles and the gruesome shots of Harmony eating folks on television. Yeah, humanity!

The slayers that are out for their own profit and kicked folks off an island so they can live there do not interest me much. What saved this section was definitely Andrew. His speeches about nerdy things, while boring to Buffy and most everyone else in the comic, are almost all delightful to me. Plus, he did the classic Andrew thing where he tries to be helpful, but does so using his talent with demons, which...yeah, oops.

Giles and Faith's section was pretty boring. They didn't really accomplish anything and they don't quite seem to have a dynamic down. I am all for odd pairings, like when Buffy and Andrew went on a car drive and bonded over Daniel Craig as Bond, but Giles and Faith just are not working out.

Dawn's new incarnation is not nearly as awesome as her previous ones. A doll is just not as funny or intense as a giant or a centaur. She also does some more of the "I don't get enough attention from my sister, so I act out" stuff, which I can't stand. This ends (somewhat of a spoiler here) with her turned back to a human. Everyone knew it had to happen eventually. I'm not really sure how to feel about this, since her crazy forms were some of the best parts of this series for me. However, I am sure she can still get into ridiculous antics (and from some of the spoilers my dear friends have mentioned, she will) as a human.

Good volume overall. A couple of the sections dragged, but there were some hilarious moments and most of the plot lines were solid. show less