Month: August 2017

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The Tick Is Strange Fun!

The Tick in its previous TV incarnations were off the wall slapstick fun.  The new Tick however is sad and strange, but in a good way if that makes any sense.  It is still funny, but it is more awkward humor instead of slap stick.  Though sticks are still slapped from time to time.  It is like a direct response to the Netflix Marvel shows.  The Marvel shows are dark and gritty and show heroes in ‘real life’.  The Tick holds up a mirror to that and shows how real life heroes would really work.  It turns out, not well.

Right now you can only watch the first half of season one, so six episodes, and they deal with Author (Griffin Newman) meeting The Tick (Peter Serafinowicz) and accepting his destiny.  The Tick obviously has some things to say about his best friend destiny.  Author is not keen on becoming a superhero due to personal trauma and mental health issues, so he needs quite a bit of convincing.  Right off the bat the show is swimming in different seas story wise.

Peter Serafinowicz’s Tick is perfect.  He is dumb, sincere and unwavering in his quest to rid the city of crime.  Even if he doesn’t know who he is.  His random monologs will no doubt make long time Tick fans very happy.  Author of course is the exact opposite, and Griffin Newman captures Author’s nervous unease perfectly.  The rest of the cast is quite good as well.

The main complaint so far is that there are only six thirty minute episodes to watch, and that they need a bigger budget.  While The Tick has always been more about the comedy than the action, its limited cash flow is very apparent any time anything superhero-y is going on, and that is a shame.  Come on Amazon, give the big dumb blue guy a little more green!

If you love The Tick, you have already watched the two and half hours of new content Amazon has produced, and if you are like you me, you enjoyed yourself.  For everyone else, if you think the Netflix Marvel shows need to get made fun of a little, The Tick is well worth watching.  Even if it is a bit more melancholy than I was expecting.  Another thing to note, if The Tick were a movie it would be rated ‘R’ for language and at times graphic violence, so it is not for the kiddoes.

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Rune Is Coming Back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bViPhnt9Rk

Seventeen years ago Human Head Studios launched a Viking RPG that would become a LAN party staple for years to come, Rune, and they are finally making a sequel.  I know that it took some time for the studio to get back on its feet after the Prey 2 fiasco that turned some fans against Bethesda, but regardless, I can’t wait for a proper return to the world of Rune.  I am a little worried about it being open world.  I don’t think that is something every game needs to do, but I know they are a talented studio looking to do something big after the hardships they have had to endure, so I hope Rune Ragnarök blows me away!

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Season Seven Was Game Of Thrones’ Most Satisfying And Frustrating Yet!

Season seven of Game of Thrones was the season that answered all the questions, pulled back all the curtains, and heading in to season eight, I am not sure how many twists the show has left.  This has led to some of Game of Thrones greatest moments, but it was in such a hurry to get to those moments it lost a lot of the long percolating intrigue that made the show so great in the first place.

Some people have complained that the show was in fast forward, and for me, that is not quite right.  Because in that scenario we still would have seen all those inter-personal moments, but just glossed over.  No, this was more like we were watching a story told people who read the CliffsNotes of the last two books.  As if they were trying to add some meat to the bones of a very small skeleton.  Which if the writers are to be believed, and they did indeed get their ideas for the last two seasons from George R. R. Martin, I guess that is exactly what they were doing.

However, those glorious moments the show did deliver, were worth the plotting issues, and having the questions we have been asking answered has been great.  It just seems that the show should have had thirty episodes left at the beginning of this season instead of thirteen.  Oh well, there are now only six episodes left, and I can’t wait for the real battle between fire and ice to begin!

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Hellboy Enters The Fray!

The trailer for the new Injustice 2 fighter pack went up, and while Raiden was an interesting choice, since this is not Mortal Kombat, and Black Manta (Aquaman’s number one villain) was a given, Hellboy is something I didn’t see coming.  Mostly because he is from neither NetherRealm’s stable of characters (Mortal Kombat) or from the DC Comics library.  He is Dark Horse Comic’s most recognizable hero, and if he can cross over, who else might come out to play?  I have my fingers crossed for Dark Horse’s other main hero, The Rocketeer!  For now though, I am very happy with HB joining the line up.

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What Is Going On With DC Entertainment?

In the last twenty-four hours there has been a lot of DC movie news: Martin Scorsese is producing a stand alone 1980’s Joker origin movie, The Batman film is no longer part of the DCEU (maybe), Gotham City Sirens is being replaced by a DECU Joker and Harley movie being made by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa the directors of Crazy Stupid Love, but now it is not and DC is making both, the Shazam movie is both in and out of the DCEU, they cut Jesse Eisenberg out of Justice League (though it looks like he was never in it), and who knows what else.

Know what I think?  There was a meeting where a lot of ideas where pitched, and now people are talking about them, so rumor sites are getting wind of what was talked about.  Most of these new movies will never enter production, but we will still get our one to two DC movies a year with most of them being in the DCEU, but if a talented filmmaker wants to make an Elseworlds tale, Warner Brothers will consider it.  How can you say no to Martin Scorsese?  DC Entertainment, even with Geoff Johns, is not like Marvel Studios.  They are more of a traditional studio and don’t just make movies under the direction of one person, and they are in a state of flux right now.  They know they need to start making good movies, so they are taking ideas from everyone, and honestly why not.

Movie studios get hundreds of pitches every day for films, but we never hear about them.  However, because DC’s back is kind of up against a wall, every movie idea or off the cuff statement from a director is big news, even though Warner Brothers themselves haven’t announced anything.  Honestly DC/Warner Brothers just needs to have its people sign a gag order and only talk about movies that are entering production, and then a lot of this internet fanboy drama would just go away.  Provided they start making better movies of course.