Author: Shmee

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Batman: The Telltale Series Ends Beautifully!

I have reviewed most of the episodes of Batman: The Telltale Series individually at this point, and for the most part they have all been successful.  Of course my worry was that they would stumble with the fifth and final episode.  They did not.  Batman: The Telltale Series Episode 5 “City of Light” wraps everything together wonderfully.

My only complaint would be that it is too action heavy, and by action I mean quick time event heavy.  Granted this ups the tension quite a bit, but these games are all about decisions, and due to this being the final episode there aren’t many major decisions left.  Just the results.  Really they just should have combined Episode 4 with Episode 5.  Oh well.  It is still really good, and I am just pointing out its minor flaws.

Now that the season is wrapped up the price on the whole season should be dropping rapidly, and if you have not bought Batman: The Telltale Series you really should.  If nothing else for comic book fans it lets you play as Bruce Wayne instead of Batman, and that is a treat in and of itself.  The series ends with a setup for Season 2, and trust me I will be playing.  Though I hope I get a Wolf Among Us Season 2 as well.   Honestly just give me a DC Telltale Series channel and it will be all I play and watch.

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DC Is Sticking With Ayer For Gotham City Sirens!

Suicide Squad made tons of money despite its awful reviews, so it is not surprising that it is getting a spinoff featuring Harley Quinn and her villainous besties, Gotham City Sirens.  What is surprising is that they are keeping on David Ayer to do the film.  Usually in this kind of situation were the movie made money, but that fans were not pleased they axe the director to appease everyone.

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised given that after the fallout of Batman v Superman DC/Warner Bros stuck with Zack Snyder for Justice League, but considering the studio head reshuffle, you would expect story/director changes to be happening all over the place.  I guess they just decided that in order to keep everything on track they need to stay with what they got, and then try to have Geoff Johns retool and try to get the scripts where they need to be.   I am hoping this strategy works out because I love the DC Universe, and would love for the movies being made to be actually good instead of okay.

Regardless, it looks like I will have to cast a new Catwoman and Poison Ivy.  That is an exciting prospect.  Also it sounds like the Deadshot movie announcement is incoming, so that should be fun.

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The Walking Dead Has A Filler Problem!

The Walking Dead started off season seven with two really good episodes.  Some people complained that they were too violent, but you know what?  You are watching a horror show about the zombie apocalypse, so if it gets violent that shouldn’t be that surprising.  Sadly the show then went in to filler mode.  Five episodes straight of do-nothing moping.

Thankfully the mid-season finale got the show back on track.  I am not sure that it was even that good of an episode, it definitely didn’t need to be 90 minutes long, but it was way better than what came before it.  Hopefully the show stays this good with the next eight episodes, so that we can finish season seven strong.  I have my doubts, but I don’t think the show can get as bad as it has been unless they introduce zombie sharks or something.

The Walking Dead used to be the only show around with a high level of tension and serialized mystery on TV, but the TV landscape has changed, and if they go back to filler mode audiences will start leaving the show in droves.

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The First Look At Mavel Studios’ Take On Spider-Man Is Finally Here!

So here is Spider-Man: Homecoming’s first trailer, and it is pretty good.  Peter is back in high school, doing high school stuff, and oh, Iron Man is around, so that should be fun.  Michael Keaton’s Vulture looks pretty sweet.  He should be a good first villain for this new young Spider-Man.  Anyway it looks like Sony will finally get the web-slinger franchise they have been after.

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I Give Jupiter Ascending One And A Half Flesh Colored Beards Out Of Four!

There are a lot of really good ideas in Jupiter Ascending: a girl on a Wizard of Oz adventure through space, ancient humans leading Anne Rice style houses, and generic modification just to name a few, but those ideas just never come together.  Which is a shame because I am always on the look out for good original Sci-Fi.

The story follows a young woman named Jupiter (Mila Kunis) who finds out that she is the exact genetic copy of the most powerful person in the universe.  Turns out that in space if you are the exact genetic copy of someone and they die, you get all their stuff.  Of course a lot of powerful people do not want some random person rising to power, so it is up to Caine (Channing Tatum), a dog person, to keep her safe while she completes the paperwork necessary to become the ruler of the galaxy.

There is just too much going on in this plot to allow for a coherent story.  Someone needed to take a hatchet to just about everything and then streamline this movie on the one or two best ideas.  Sadly that did not happen, so we don’t get to spend enough time with what is important,  and then waste time watching a bunch of random other stuff.  This probably would have made an interesting TV show because then they could have expounded on everything.

Much like the plot, the actors all seemed lost in this movie as well.  Mila Kunis tries her best, but her script must have just read, “act confused”.  Channing Tatum tries to channel an action hero, but I was too distracted by his odd fake flesh colored beard.  I know it was supposed to mimic dog fur or something, but it just looked odd.  Despite the fact Eddie Redmayne won a Razzie for worst supporting actor for his role, his over the top performance at least added interest.

The special effects and makeup could have saved parts of this movie, but they all looked cheap and dated (fake flesh colored beard anyone?).  Had I not known the movie’s budget I would have thought that The Wachowskis ambition outstripped their funds, but it turns out that the budget for this movie was north of $170 Million, so there is no excuse for everything to look as bad as it did.

I wanted to like Jupiter Ascending, but it ended up being boring mess.  A fun mess I could have respected.  The Wachowskis continue to have interesting ideas for their films, but they need someone to come in and help them edit them.  Though after three large box-office bombs in a row, I am not sure how many more chances they will get.