Suicide Squad

By. Ian Zigel

While Suicide Squad’s larger than life marketing campaign that shoved music, art, whatever Skrillex does, and incredibly well done trailers down our throats for a year suggested that in viewing the film we’d be joining a wickedly cool squad, I sat in the theater contemplating the title’s first word for the majority of the film. Suicide Squad is completely flawed; There’s nothing I can really appreciate about it except for the music that Warner Brothers was able to fund with the dollars of cheated fans. If I even try and list all the major flaws and ignore the minor ones I’ll start getting traumatic flashbacks of Vietnam caliber, but I feel it’s my patriotic duty to warn anyone with any hope at all that the unsuccessful attempt at Joker does nothing for the film’s plot, that none of the character arcs are believable, and that Harley Quinn has an accent for half of the film and no accent for the other and it will drive you way crazier than any of the film’s characters are supposed to be. The only silver lining is that this film has enabled me to be a martyr; I suffered through Suicide Squad so that you don’t have to. Spend your money anywhere else, unless disappointment is what you seek.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

By. Ben Kreger

During the Summer I was privileged enough to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Nine years after the release of the final Harry Potter book J.K Rowling released a two part play following the adventures of the next generation of wizards who attend Hogwarts and the misadventure that follow. Last winter, there was a lottery for the first tickets to be sold and my family was lucky enough to get a good spot. We traveled to London and found ourselves in the midst of Harry Potter theater. Crowds of people waiting in line in full Harry Potter costume in the heart of London’s theater district. It was a spectacular sight, yet no where near as grand as the play itself being  full of the drama and mind boggling pyrotechnics. Upon leaving I received a pin to wear #keepthesecrets. By the time I returned from Europe, the book had been released. It did not receive the glowing reviews that the play itself had, yet I still insist on you discovering the secrets yourself and witnessing the play with your own eyes.

Glass Animals: How to be a Human Being

By.  Eric Bernstein

Glass Animals’ second album, How To Be A Human Being, surprised this summer as it was not only well done, but significantly different from their first album.  How To Be A human Being is truly unique in that each song offers different hidden meanings, adding to the uniqueness of the album.  The album starts off with the song Life Itself which Tribal like drumming gives it a good sound.  The album doesn’t truly hit its stride until its 4th song, Pork Soda. From there, the creativity of the album is far and away outstanding.   Its mix of different sounds such as riffs, combine well with the many other instruments going on in the background.  These instruments come together to form one distinct beautiful sound. Overall, Glass Animals’ sophomore album offers a different creative vision for the band, while at the same time holding on to the elements of their music that made their first album so successful.

No Man’s Sky

By.  Christian Nguyen

Aptly monikered No Man’s Lie, No Man’s Sky, was probably the biggest gaming bust of the Summer. Wow real nerdy stuff right? Still it hit home with some of us. From the beginning of marketing and its first  showing at E3 No Man’s Sky was put on a platter and delivered to gamers as the next step in the evolution of gaming, bringing a massive random generated sandbox universe, yes universe, multiplayer, mind boggling graphics and intense survival game plan. What we got in the end was a rotten time and massive amounts of unfulfilled statements. From the monotonous game play and landscapes to the horrendous npc systems and not to mention unfulfilled promises the indie developers of the game, Hello Gaming, were making nerds and geeks alike mourn in despair of what should have been a magnum opus of indie gaming and the next step in gaming. What we got instead was one big fat putrid “meh”.