Author: Shmee

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Re-Watching Batman Beyond!

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I noticed Batman Beyond on Netflix, and I have started watching it again.  The animation is a little rough, but I am impressed with how well the stories have held up.  For a cartoon that was just supposed to be cool so that it would appeal to thirteen year old boys in the 90’s, they did a great job.

Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) is too old to continue to be Batman, but with the help of the young Terry McGinnis (Will Friedle) in a high tech Batsuit they are able to keep the Gotham of the future safe.

Kevin Conroy is voice of Batman.  It is a shame that he and Mark Hamill (the cartoon Joker) have stepped down.  I hope they get to make The Killing Joke for their final carton movie.  They are some of the best voice actors of their generation.  Will Friedle is good too, but Conroy is simply great.

Watching the series now makes me wish that they would have gone ahead with the movie they were planning before Batman Begins.  Don’t get me wrong, I am happy with the Nolan Batman movies, but a Batman Beyond movie would have been awesome.  I hope Warner Brothers dusts that script off and we get to see it.

If you are looking for a good thirty minute show to watch, Batman Begins is one of my favorites.

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Jupiter Ascending: The Wachowskis Back Doing What They Do Best!

Ever since the Matrix, geeks everywhere, myself included, have been waiting for the Wachowskis to get back to hard core Sci-Fi, and it looks like they finally have with Jupiter Ascending.

The film is about a human girl named Jupiter (Mila Kunis) who is being targeted by the ruler of the universe, and Caine (Channing Tatum) is an alien trying to save her in order to save everyone.  It sounds a little like The Matrix in space, but hey Harry Potter is like the Matrix with magic, and that is pretty good.

The Wachowskis are wizards with special effects and worlds that don’t exist.  The future parts of Cloud Atlas were the best, and that was in no small part due to that wizardry, so a whole new movie with that sounds great!  Next year is shaping up to be a good one at the movies!

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Basking in the Warm Glow of Peggle 2!

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There are not a lot of games my wife and I agree on, but Peggle was one of them, so when PopCap/EA released Peggle 2 for Xbox One yesterday it was a must purchase.  Peggle 2 is mostly just a prettier version of Peggle with different characters, but that is like saying “meh it is just tastier chocolate”.  Peggle, like cowbell, is something that you cannot have too much of.

For those of you that did not play Peggle, I would like to welcome you to the end of 2013, and ask what rock you have been hiding under for the last decade?  Peggle is an awesome mix of plinko and pin ball with a crazy cast of characters that give you special abilities to destroy all those orange pegs.  In Peggle 2 you do the same thing, but there are new characters, and each level has special optional extra challenges to add to the replayability.  Plus each character has their own set of trials that test your skills in doing crazy ball shots.  There are also character costumes to unlock.

Despite being a 2D puzzle game, they still updated the graphics quite a bit.  The special abilities have really cool particle effects, and the characters are much more animated on the side lines.  The backgrounds are much more intricate.  While this game is still about the fun gameplay, the new graphics do make the game more enjoyable.

Some people are complaining that there are only five characters, and six worlds to explore, but there are still 160 puzzles to play, which is much more than the original.  That is still a lot of bang for $12 bucks, and this game is impossible to play without a smile on your face.

One of the big reasons for the smile is the music.  In Peggle it was all about hearing the Ode to Joy play at the end of every level, but in Peggle 2 each character has its own Fever music, from Ode to Joy to the William Tell Overture, and they all sound great and make that last shot one of the best things to happen in all of video games.

The only downside about this game is that it ships without local multiplayer.  They just announced that it would be added in the next DLC, but its exclusion keeps Peggle 2 from being perfect.  It was one of the things my wife and I enjoyed most about the first game.

I like Peggle 2 quite a bit, and if you have an Xbox One it is more than a worthy purchase.  For me it is a must own.  If you do not have an Xbox One, I am sure, much like Peggle, it will be on just about every platform known to man soon enough.

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Spending Some Time With The DC Showcase Original Shorts Collection!

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The guys and gals over at DC Universe have made a quite a few good animated films, so when I saw Superman and Shazam: The Return of Black Adam on Netflix I decided to give it a watch.  It turns out that it was actually a collection of DC shorts called the DC Showcase Original Shorts Collection.  It was a cool way to see a few characters that don’t get a lot of coverage.

On Netflix there were four shorts: Superman and Shazam: The Return of Black Adam, The Spectre, Jonah Hex, and The Green Arrow.  If you check this out on DVD/Blu-Ray there is also a short Catwoman feature, but since I didn’t see it, I can’t review it.

Superman and Shazam: The Return of Black Adam is the longest of the shorts clocking in at twenty-five minutes.  It features the origin of the new Captain Marvel (different from Marvel’s Captain Marvel, yes it is very confusing) as he enlists Superman’s help to take out Black Adam.

The Spectre is different from most of the DCU stuff because they set it in the 70’s, and it follows The Spectre as he terrorizes the people that killed a movie mogul.  The Spectre unlike most DC Heroes has no problem killing guilty people.

Jonah Hex rides in to town to find a bounty, but it turns out he will have to take out a gang that has been killing rich people and stealing their money.

The Green Arrow is planning a special night with Dinah Lance/Black Canary when Merlyn the Magnificent shows up to kill the Princess of Perdita, so it is time for a Green Arrow versus Black Arrow shoot off.

All of the shorts are well done, and like I said before it is fun to check out some of the lesser DC Heroes.  You almost never hear about The Spectre, and after the awful Jonah Hex movie is great to see him in something good.  It is also nice to see a more true to the comic book Green Arrow over what is presented by the TV show.  Marvel’s Captain Marvel is better, but DC’s is still good, and I was happy to see him.

DCU continues to pump out great animated flicks, and I stand by my assertion that they should be heading up DC/Warner Brothers live action super hero movies because everything that I have watched that they have done has at least been interesting.  But I guess we will see how the new Batman versus Superman movie turns out before I get too judgmental.  Maybe.

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They Finally Cast A Wonder Woman!

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Well it must be very cold someplace hot because they have finally cast Wonder Woman for the Batman vs Superman movie, Gal Gadot!  I have not seen much of what Gal Gadot has been in, but maybe that is good since I will not have any preconceived ideas about her acting abilities unlike the man set to be Batman.  She may not be my choice, but she has got the look, and has been in a few action movies, so I wish her the best.  With the main cast set, I hope this movie gets DC’s comic book cinematic universe rolling!