Alex’s Review Corner’s Official One Year Birthday!

Yippie! Hurray! Woo!

One year ago today I published ‘Skyrim: Dragging My Feet‘ which delved into how I went from considering Skyrim to be one of my favourite games to one of the most boring, and how after hundreds of hours of gameplay I suddenly concluded that I wasn’t as interested in the game as I once had been. It was the first review of anything that I had written that I not only felt was a fair review from my own perspective as a reviewer, but one which I thoroughly enjoyed putting together. While I had written reviews in the past, none of them felt as honest as that one. It spawned my review of Godzilla (1954), which in turn spawned the thing that really made me passionate about continuing this blog: A comprehensive series of reviews on all of the Showa Era Godzilla movies. It’s been a wild ride since then. That’s how this blog (at least under the brand of Alex’s Review Corner) got itself rolling.

Now, I thought it would be fun to do something unique for my 1 year birthday by listing what I consider to be my three favourite blog posts from this space of mine, and what I consider to be my three least favourite. We are going to be starting with the five least favourite because I’d like to end this celebration post on a positive note with the best ones. So, here it goes. In no particular order:

Three Least Favourite Posts:
1. The Karate Kid (1984) Review:
More than anything I think my review was a bit bland. After viewing the Karate Kid I thoroughly enjoyed it and figured I should write a review. But the problem was that I really didn’t feel as though I had enough to say about it. I enjoyed it… And that was about it. For this reason I think the review lacks the personality that some of my better ones do.

2. Falcon and the Winter Soldier Review: John Walker vs The Fandom:
I disliked this show a lot and I think the main problem with this review is that I struggled to articulate why. This review was on the backburner for a long time and was pushed back in the schedule repeatedly to make way for reviews I thought were better. Looking back I probably shouldn’t have published it. On another note, it was pointed out to me by Cameron of Cameron’s Considerations that I had used a foreign marketing poster for the featured image of the post, which reads “Falcao Ed Soldado Invernal”. My guess is that it’s Spanish or Italian, but I really don’t know. By the time it was pointed out to me the post had been up for a while and read by enough people that changing the image wouldn’t have mattered. I also found it funny, and thought that was reason enough to keep the foreign poster.

3. Fallout (1997) Review:
Once again this post is on the list because I feel like I struggled to articulate what I really thought of the game. In truth, this is probably on my list of favourite games of all time but I don’t think that is at all communicated in the post. On the plus side, the review is objective and informative, but lacks that personal touch in a similar way to my Karate Kid review. Reading it you do get the impression that I like the game but you never gage just how much, which I think is an oversight in tone on my behalf.

Three Favourite Posts:
1. Alexander (2004) Review: Our Perception of Conquerors:
Watching this movie was a lot of leg-work. Researching what the majority thought to be the best version of the film and then obtaining it was a task in of itself. Then sitting through 4 hours of what felt like complete and utter self-indulgence on the director’s part was almost painful. This movie had moments of good, and even a flicker of greatness during the scenes set in India, but nothing that could redeem it’s torn focus and identity. The review I wrote was perhaps the most analytical one I’ve ever done of a piece of media and for that reason, one that is unique to this blog and the movie review which took the most effort to write. In the end it was something I was very proud of, pinning it to my Twitter for all two of my followers to see and all.

2. What is the Best RPG Ever Made?:
This is an April Fool’s Day post that I wrote for no other reason other than to entertain the most unfunny parts of my sense of humour. The joke is that instead of reviewing “Role Playing Games”, I review “Rat Pwning Games” because of how cliché it is in gaming for you to be sent on a menial, unrewarding quest to kill abnormally large rats. I don’t know if you thought it was funny, but I did because that’s the state of my brain. As a one-off post it was pretty fun to write, and you bet that I’ll be making another April Fool’s post in 2022.

3. University: Three Years in Review:
Being my most personal post, this was also one of the most fulfilling to write and have on the blog. It’s also one I’m proud of because a lot of effort and consideration went into this one. At the time it felt a bit like therapy to write, but now I see just as a piece of good writing that I have produced about a part of my life I had, until the publication of the post, not been entirely honest with myself about. More interesting than that is this posts legacy, as it actually got the attention of the university: It did directly impact necessary changes being made to the employability module that I let loose on towards the end of the post. It also reached the student engagement team and was included in discussion about the response to Covid-19 was handled. Obviously my post was about the broad experience I had at the university, so it’s not like my words alone were the sole cause for any and all change at the university or on the course I studied, but I’m still proud to say that in some ways, be they direct or indirect, my words did have an influence.

Additionally, I’d like to link to a few readers of mine who have been consistent for a long time and who help keep me motivated to write here. These are readers who I’ve noticed have been reading what I post here for a while and I’d like to just say a big formal thank you to them, some of whom I enjoy reading too. In fact, for that reason alone they deserve a mention:

1. Red Metal of Extra Life
   Red Metal writes reviews like myself. Recently he’s been diving into Donkey Kong and just got off of doing a series on Commander Keen games. He features a lot of blog writers in his monthly wrap-up’s, and has featured me a couple of times. He’s definetly one deserving of your attention.
2. Alex on Film
   Alex reviews a wide variety of movies I’ve ever seen a reviewer go for. Some of his reviews are of things I’m deeply familiar with, while others are of things I never knew existed. Check him out for a boat-load of variety.
3. Sebastian of RelatoCorto
   Otherwise known as the guy who has a 99% chance of being the first person to like something I post. Thank you, Sebastian. This guy writes short stories that are all pretty nifty. Looking at his posts, he gets way more attention than I think I could ever traffic in his direction and rightly so, because a lot of care goes into his writing. Give him a shot if you need your fix of fiction.
4. Emily of Monster Lady’s Diary
   I got into Emily’s blog by reading her review of DOOM Eternal’s second DLC, but also enjoy her other update posts – particularly the ones about her vivid dreams. Emily not only has a lot to share about her opinions as a reviewer, but also about herself. It’s an openness I appreciate and makes her posts feel very relatable. Give her a chance if you like reading stuff that has a lot of heart put into it.
5. Ian of I Think It’s Interesting
   Ian writes both reviews of films and provides interesting insights into his life. Yesterday (at the time of writing this) he posted about doing to the Jameson Distillery in Ireland, but also has list posts about his favourite actors, movies and TV shows. There are a variety of posts here, all of which are well written, and deserving of some more attention.
6. Cameron’s Considerations
   It would be rude not to include Cameron because he is a friend of mine in the world beyond this computer screen, and who has been supportive of my reviews. He doesn’t post too often to his blog for the reason that he only likes to when he knows he has a very strong opinion abut what he’s discussing. When he does post, you can expect some quite passionate reviews that might be worth a gander.

As I said, these are not my only six viewers and I am thankful for everyone who has clicked on my posts even in passing. I jus thought it would be a good idea to share some love during this celebration post.

Now, I’d like to discuss an alternate idea I had for this post: It was going to be one where I let you in on some of my blog’s statistics over the past year, but then I realised it would be slightly skewed. You see, months ago my Godzilla vs Gigan and Godzilla vs Hedorah posts got over 200+ views in the course of just a day or two for reasons I cannot explain. My best bet is that a bunch of bots decided these reviews were worth propping up? My reason for thinking this is because the spike in views was limited to these two Godzilla reviews, and eventually my Epilogue to that review series, with no additional likes or comments being posted. Just views, nothing else, all coming from one country: The USA. But then why would bots what to artificially inflate the views of an otherwise unknown blog like my own? Who knows? Maybe you readers can explain this weirdness.

And, finally, before I wrap this post up I do want to confirm that Halloween this year lands on a Sunday. This means that, yes, there will be a Halloween movie review going up on Halloween night, without me having to adjust my schedule to fit it in. How great is that!?

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this mini celebration post. I truly enjoy writing here and sharing my reviews with those of you that read. Thanks for sticking around and I hope you stick around for another year of Alex’s Review Corner.