Author: Shmee

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With The Casting Of Key Justice Society Characters The CW Is Indeed Shaping Up To Be DC’s Earth 2!

Stargirl

According to IGN actress Sarah Grey is now the CW’s Stargirl on Legends of Tomorrow.   Stargirl is a key member of the Justice Society of America.  If you don’t know who Sarah Grey is here is a headshot for you:

sarah-gray

Now I know nothing about Grey’s acting talent, but what is exciting is that my hope of the CW becoming DC’s live action Earth 2 are coming true.  Why do I say that you ask?  The Justice Society is the Justice League from Earth 2, so if they are going to be Legends of Tomorrow’s primary superhero crime fighting force that means the CW is owning its second Earth status.  Which is great.  I am all for the TV series being the timey wimey crazy DC earth.  Not to mention if they are officially Earth 2 it still leaves the opportunity open for a TV/Movie meet-up! They are announcing more Justice Society characters as they get closer to Legend’s second season, and I can’t wait!

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Forget Rotten Tomatoes, Suicide Squad Is A Lot Of Fun!

Suicide-Squad-800

Going in to Suicide Squad I read a lot of reviews, and most of them were terrible.  Their unrelenting negativity washed over me.  I was heartbroken.  I had been looking forward to this movie for months, but I steeled for the worse and went anyway with my lovely wife, and you know what?  I enjoyed myself quite a bit.  No Suicide Squad is not perfect, and yes it did feel like two different movies at times: one a dark over the top action comedy, no doubt being pushed by DC, and the other a more standard David Ayer (the director) grimy street crime drama, but I liked both of those movies.

The setup for Suicide Squad is that US government is worried that the next ‘Superman’ may not be a good guy, so they greenlight a project being run by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to have the bad guys be forced to work off their long prison sentences by saving the world.  Not to mention they have bombs in their necks, so if they don’t behave their commander Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) has a button to take a little off the top.

The biggest issue with this movie’s plot is the pacing.  There are so many new characters to introduce that in the beginning Suicide Squad can’t seem to focus for more than a few minutes, but once those introductions are finished and the premise becomes clear the movie kicks it in to high gear.  Sure the big bad’s plan in this film didn’t make a lot of sense, but not to a movie breaking level like everyone seems to be saying it is.

What elevated this movie for me were the amazing performances.  Suicide Squad is an ensemble movie, so the ensemble had to do their parts, and man did they ever.  Viola Davis owned Amanda Waller.  She was every bit the imposing morally gray A.R.G.U.S. director comic book fans have come to know and love.  Will Smith and Margot Robbie likewise nailed their roles as Deadshot and Harley Quinn.  I also need to give special attention to Jay Hernandez as El Diablo.  It would have been very easy for him to get lost in this movie, but he made El Diablo the emotional center of this film.

One role that is going to be a divisive for a lot of fans is Jared Leto’s Joker.  In the comics and the cartoon he always keeps affections for Harley Quinn under wraps.  You tended to get the feeling in the comics that their ‘romance’ was fairly one sided with Harley being infatuated with the Clown Prince, but the Joker couldn’t be forced to care about Harley’s well being or feelings.  Not so in Suicide Squad.  The Joker is just as infatuated with Harley as she is with him.  Not to mention Leto’s Joker seems like he is high all the time.  He doesn’t seem to be the razor sharp and calculating villain most people expect.  I liked this different take, but I can understand why more than a few people are upset.

If you have been excited to see Suicide Squad, but the bad reviews have put you off, you should still go see it anyway.  While there are a lot of things they could have done better it was still a ton of fun, and a great way to see a good representation of a lot of fan favorite characters.  I hope the Squad gets to come back because I can’t wait to see where they take these characters next.  It would be a shame if the Suicide Squad was a one and done franchise.  It has amazing potential.

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The Live Action Transformers Movie We Always Wanted!

After several terrible Michael Bay Transformers movies the fans haven taken it upon themselves to create the movie we always wanted: Generation 1.  It might feature a lot of people in robot costumes, but it has the look and feel of the original cartoon show down pat.  If you have got 15 minutes, it is well worth your time.

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The First True Overwatch Challenger Has Arrived, LawBreakers!

lawbreakers

When Overwatch came out everyone was trying to compare it to Battleborn, but in reality, other than their art style, those games were completely different.  LawBreakers, which is in Alpha right now, on the other hand is very similar to Overwatch.  You get a cast of crazy characters and they battle against each other in arena and objective based battles.  What sets LawBreakers apart is that it is much faster, there are ‘low gravity zones’, the game’s aesthetic has much more of a hard edge, and for now the cast of characters is much smaller.  Not surprisingly, due to Cliff Bleszinski’s involvement, it feels a little more like Unreal Tournament.

Currently LawBreakers only has two assault characters, a tank, and an assassin/spy.  I am sure that as the game gets closer to release we will see more characters come out.  I mean half of the fun with these types of games is using characters with completely different play styles, but even with this small roster the game is fun, but you can tell it isn’t polished as Overwatch, though no one polishes a game like Blizzard.  It also feels like it is missing something, like it is tinny or hollow.  I am not sure what it is.  Perhaps it is the lore that isn’t as good, or the weapons lack the kick of Overwatch.  It is trying to hard maybe?  I am not sure.  It just feels slightly off.  Still good, but not quite where it needs to be.

Regardless.  The game is going to be entering Beta soon, and you should keep an eye out for it.  It is fun, and if CliffyB and Boss Key can figure out that little something LawBreakers is missing, this could be a great game.  It has one more weekend in Alpha, so I am assuming we will see a Beta sign-ups soon, and I think you should at least give it a try.  Maybe you can help me and CliffyB (mostly CliffyB since he is making the game) figure out what LawBreakers needs.

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Shmee Walks Fast And Punches People With Jason Bourne!

poster-jason-bourne

It has been nine years since the last Matt Damon Bourne movie, but it is clear after watching Jason Bourne that Damon still knows how to play the titular character.  I just wish they would have come up with something interesting for him to do.  Jason Bourne is like a greatest hits from the other Bourne movies.  It is all pretty good, but you have seen it all before.

The film begins with Jason Bourne living off the grid and surviving by winning money one punching people in underground prize fights.  So things are obviously pretty great for him.  Then guess who shows up to tell him that he doesn’t remember all of his past, and that the CIA is up to some more dirty tricks?  That’s right his old pal Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), so Jason will have to walk fast while wearing baseball hats, punch people, and occasionally drive a vehicle at unsafe speeds until he can confront the director of the CIA … again.

Yup.  It is pretty much the same story from the last three Matt Damon Bourne movies.  The locations are different, and the car chases are on a larger scale, but there isn’t any new ground broken with this film.  It is hard to enjoy all the punching and crashing when the story in between is the same old thing.  I was hoping that maybe this time around he would be like a crusading avenger fighting injustice in the spy world or something, but no, his past sucks and the CIA director needs to be taken down a peg.  Maybe these movies are supposed to serve as a warning to the CIA, “Behave or Jason Bourne is going to come down there and punch you!!!”. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Jason Bourne is not only the return of Matt Damon, but also the series’ most well known director Paul Greengrass.  If that name makes you feel a bit queasy, that is because he is the man that made shaky-cam popular, and he is up to his old tricks.  He shakes that camera all over the place.  Though it seems that this time around he at least remembers to give the audience a few reprieves and hold the camera steady for a few seconds every once and a while.

I have been pretty hard on Jason Bourne, but that is only because I like these movies, and I just wanted them try something a little different with this film.  The action is still top notch, and Matt Damon’s Bourne is still a captivating character.  If you just want watch Jason Bourne do his thing, you will probably like Jason Bourne.  Heck I enjoyed myself for the most part.  I just wish they would have come up with something more meaningful for Jason to do.  Maybe next time.