Shmee.Me

June 25, 2015June 25, 2015

Take A Trip On The Starship Eternal!

I know, I know, people don’t read my book reviews, but hey it has been awhile, so indulge me! Plus it just means people need to read more. Today’s book is Starship Eternal by M.R. Forbes. Another space opera, shocking! But to Forbes’ credit this was a pretty good book, and I will probably finish off the series at some point. Well unless the second book is terrible, then I won’t.

Starship Eternal has a pretty standard plot synopsis: A disgraced military officer Captain Mitchell “Ares” Williams and a ragtag group of criminals must save humanity from an unknown threat. I know you have heard that plot before, but still it ends up being a pretty solid effort, and a good read. It also has a couple of fun hooks that make it a little more original which I am not going to spoil for you, but I am just saying it is not all cliché.

The one major issue I had with this book is that is seems it is obsessed with sex. The characters are always getting down, or thinking of getting down. It kind of detracts from the greater story arc. I can understand a little thrown in here or there, but I just wish Forbes’ had toned it down a little. Other than that one little quibble the story is quite a well done space adventure.

It was good to read a decent book on the independent list from Amazon. It is safe to say I have been underwhelmed lately, so to have Starship Eternal turn out to be a well executed novel was a refreshing surprise. Starship Eternal is a fun page turner, and even better if you enjoy the space military genre. We will have to see if this is true for the next couple of books in the series. I hope so.

June 18, 2015June 18, 2015

Sign Up With The Kingsman: The Secret Service!

So lets say you are Matthew Vaughn, and that you just saved the X-Men franchise with First Class, but since Singer has returned to X-Men for Days of Future Past what do you do? Work on a new comic book franchise of course, and the more British the better! That is how we got Kingsman: The Secret Service. A fun spy move from a guy that you can tell loves fun spy movies.

The story is about young man, Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Taron Egerton), who is given the chance to join the Kingsman. An elite private spy organization started by a bunch of wealthy English men with no heirs thanks to World War I with the desire to stop large scale warfare from happening again. This new recruit will have to prove that despite his lower class upbringing he is just as good as the upper crust of British society, and maybe, just maybe, save the world.

Even though the poor kid from the streets that proves he as just as good if not better than everyone else story has been done to death, Vaughn managed to keep this light, and delightfully over the top. Vaughn made sure to cram everything he loves in to this movie. Crazy action, in your face violence, and silly characters. His excesses also keep this movie from being great. While it is good fun, it is hard to get too emotionally or thoughtfully invested. It is just Vaughn showing you stuff he likes. Luckily he likes cool stuff.

Colin Firth deserves a lot of credit for making this film enjoyable as well.. He is able to play “Galahad”, one of Kingsman’s best spies, with so much British charm that the movie lights up every time he is on screen, so with him guiding the young main character, there is no way this couldn’t have been good. New talent Taron Egerton does a good job, but pretty much he just has to do his best to be amazed all the time, and then react to the stuff going on around him. With the next movie he will have to do more.

The fight coordinators deserve a special shout-out as well. There are some great fights in the film. They are well captured, and filmed in a way that you can see what is going on. Really good work. I can’t wait to see how they up the ante next time around.

I enjoyed my time with Kingsman: The Secret Service. It kept me entertained the whole way through. It managed to be light hearted and hyper violent all at the same time. It never quite gets to that upper level of amazing films, but that doesn’t mean you will not have a good time. Though if blood offends you, you may need to get your spy fix somewhere else.

June 10, 2015July 7, 2015

How About Some Comic Book Media News?!

Let’s start off with some casting news shall we? (Thanks to Hypersonic55 for the image by the way)

Netflix Casts The Punisher!

Jon Bernthal formally known as Shane from AMC’s The Walking Dead will now be Frank Castle in Netflix’s Daredevil. After two failed Punisher movies I guess the Disney execs think maybe TV is the right place for the man who wants to kill the mob. I liked Tom Jane as The Punisher, but his movie was terrible, and I think Jon will do a good job. He should be an excellent counterpoint to the anti-killing hero Daredevil. We will also get to see some good bullets versus ninja action!

DC/Warner Brother Drops The Batman V Superman Synopsis!

With Batman V Superman about nine months away DC thought the time was right to drop the plot synopsis for the flick. It is pretty much what we thought, but here you go anyway!

Fearing the actions of a god-like super hero left unchecked, Gotham City’s own formidable, forceful vigilante takes on Metropolis’s most revered, modern-day savior, while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it really needs. And with Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting mankind in greater danger than it’s ever known before.

Like I said, it is pretty much what everyone was expecting. The question is how long will they fight each other before teaming up?

First Justice League: Gods and Monsters Short Released!

Bruce Timm said Justice League: Gods and Monsters was going to be dark, but I wasn’t prepared for how dark. This is quite the trip down the rabbit hole, but it is interesting, and it does live up to its title: Twisted. Have a look for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpu6yPAFHrs

It is not the cartoon we are used to that is for sure, but it is kind of a fun take. We will see how it pans out over the next few episodes before the movie launches.

That is my comic book media roundup. Is there anything you think I should have talked about? Let me know!

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015

Shmee Has A Wake For Constantine!

With no good news coming out for weeks it was just a matter of time before we got the word, and yesterday the executive producer of Constantine dropped the bomb via twitter that the show was officially canceled. It is was hard to see a good show die, but it is better knowing than an endless cycle of hope some random TV station is going to pick it up.

If there is any bight spot hopefully this now means that Constantine will show up at some point in the 18 million other DC TV shows coming out this fall, and if he does hopefully it will be Matt Ryan. His supernatural know how would definitely come in handy. I could see him and Arrow being pretty good friends. Well as friendly as those two get anyway. NBC gave me one less reason to watch their station, and they don’t have very many left.

June 5, 2015

Well I Hope You Don’t Like X-Men Comics!

Marvel has announced that they are launching 55-60 new comic books after their Secret Wars event, and it looks like the Inhumans are going to be the new version of the X-Men. The X-Men are too popular to do away with completely, and there will be a sprinkling the them thrown in to other comic books. You know, for flavor, but they will not be a main force in the books anymore.

I am not sure how too feel about this. On one hand them getting rid of the X-Men going forward does not cancel out all the great comic books of the past, but it does seem like the suits upstairs are starting to interfere more and more with the comic books coming out of Marvel, and I don’t think that will end well. I hope it does, but it is starting to dim my view of the Marvel enterprise.

The X-Men are dead! Long live the Inhumans!