Author: Shmee

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The Walking Dead Season Six Finale Was Bull Crap!

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Okay we need to talk about The Walking Dead season six finale “The Last Day On Earth”!  Obviously this rant will contain spoilers so you have been warned.  Well except for the fact I can’t really spoil anything because nothing really happened.  I don’t know what the writers were thinking with this episode.  They managed to create an episode that not only didn’t deliver on its promises, but that also now has the worst cliff hanger of all time.

They have been asking for all of the second half of season 6 “Who will survive?” only to not tell us.  Sure the introduction of Negan was good, and he is just as charismatic and terrifying as we have been told, but we were also promised he would kill someone, and while he technically did, they just didn’t show us.  So they used 90 minutes to not deliver on the one question that they have been asking for months.  Of course now they get to ask ‘Who was it?”, but that is garbage, it is just being mean to their fans.

The show already had a natural and interesting cliff hanger, “How will the group survive this?”, but I guess that wasn’t enough, so they decided it was okay to amp it up for no reason.  I could see if this show was doing poorly how an action like this would make sense, but this is the most popular show on the planet, so there was no need to not deliver on their own marketing.

The Walking Dead has been getting lazy with their writing for a while now, and this finale might be the tipping point in The Walking Dead’s popularity.  I have not heard this much backlash about an episode of TV in a long time, and I think the producers of The Walking Dead are going to regret filming “The Last Day On Earth”.

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Batman V Superman Take Two!

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So even though I had middling feelings about BvS:DoJ I decided to go and check it out again over the weekend, and I have to say I thought it was better the second time around.  Understanding where all the plots were going really helped out.  Plus I knew all the stuff I could tune out.  Though I will say if I was the editor I would have taken a hatchet to Batman v Superman.

I love Amy Adams, but I would have killed her whole story arc.  It never made any sense.  Superman’s mountain walkabout? Gone.  He already gets advice from Ma Kent there is no need for more soul searching.  Justice League cameos?  I would have just copied Marvel and thrown them all after the credits.  That would have just left Wonder Woman (okay and someone else too), and that would have been enough.  Then if there was anything left that would have smoothed out some of the main stories on the cutting room floor I would have re-added those clips.  This movie would have been much better at two hours long.

Anyway like I said, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was actually better the second time, and I am now curious where everything goes from here.  Obviously we know the big bad guy will be Darkseid, or at least a Darkseid minion for Part 1, and he brings with him a whole bag of trouble.  I just hope audiences will not have to see the movies twice for them to make any sense.

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This Weekend Is The Big Test For Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice!

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Two things happened with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice last weekend: One, It was panned by critics, and two, it made a ton of money at the box office.  For some reason people were surprised that a movie featuring two American icons fighting made money hand over fist even though the critics hated it, but the first movie with Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman was always going to make a lot of cash the era of mega-blockbuster weekends.  The big question is will it continue to make money.

Last weekend industry analysts (I wish I had a job I could be wrong at all the time) said Batman v Superman was going to make a little less than $150 Million, and maybe even less than that due to bad reviews.  The movie went on to make $166 Million.  There are some troubling signs for Warner Brothers/DC however.  The movie made an enormous $82 Million on Friday (including all the Thursday previews), but it dropped all the way to $34 Million on Sunday.  That is the biggest same weekend drop of all time.  Now there are a couple of factors at play here: Thanks to reasonable Thursday preview show-times Friday numbers are getting very inflated.  They need to start counting Thursday as its own day.  Also Sunday was Easter.  Which is a day for being outside hunting eggs, not inside watching hyper-violent superhero flicks.  So analysts aren’t sure if that historic same weekend drop was due to bad word of mouth or reasonable Easter weather.

For mega-blockbusters a second weekend drop of about 60% to 65% is the norm, so if Batman v Superman is truly critic-proof we should see a total of $65 Million to $60 Million this weekend.  A much bigger drop than that Warner Brothers/DC should be concerned about the future of their franchise.  If it takes in more than that Warner Brothers should be very excited since they were able to not only dodge a bullet, but that they were able to truly start competing with Disney/Marvel.

As for me, as much as my review of Batman v Superman was mixed, I kind of hope that it is able to truly shrug of critics and become a massive success.  I think critics often get an overinflated view of themselves.  They feel like they are they are the gatekeepers of entertainment, and that they are the reason movies, books, music or whatever live or die.  When honestly their job is to simply inform the public of their professional opinion and then let the public decide, so sometimes it is great when the public just completely ignores them.  I will say that Batman v Superman has some really great big-screen moments that will just not be quite the same when it comes out on video, so the public may be right in ignoring the critics because some things, good or bad, you just need to see for yourself.

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Pitch Perfect 2 Fails To Hit The Same Notes

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The first Pitch Perfect surprised me with how fun and different it was, but Pitch Perfect 2 doesn’t build on its predecessor.  It instead just follows the same formula.  The songs are catchy, and it is still silly fun, but it feels like watching a lesser clone of itself.  It is a shame too because with this talented cast it could have been much better.

The Barden Bellas continued their winning ways after the events in the first movie, and they have successfully defended their National Title twice, but when Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) rips her pants at President Obama’s birthday they once again have to sing their way to the top.  Because to save themselves from being disbanded the Bellas will have to win the World Championship.

Pretty much the plot just serves to make them underdogs again so they can do a bunch of random stuff while singing.  Thankfully the music is the best part.  It is well choreographed and funny.  Everything else plays out how you would expect.  Even right down to the only way to win is to embrace the new girl’s (Hailee Steinfeld) talent.

Rebel Wilson is reliably goofy, so there are quite a few laughs, but sadly the rest of the cast just pretty much gets to hang around and sing.  The only other full character arc belongs to Anna Kendrick, but it isn’t super interesting, and it is confusing as to why she is keeping her dream of being a music producer from her friends.  Well they do give a reason it just isn’t a good one.

If you are just looking for some more songs and a few laughs Pitch Perfect 2 might be perfect for you, but if you were looking for the movie to try something new, or for it to be better than first Pitch Perfect, you will be a little disappointed.  Pitch Perfect 2 was hugely successful, so Pitch Perfect 3 comes out next year.  I just hope they can figure something out to shake things up.