Shmee.Me

May 9, 2014May 9, 2014

I Think I Read The Atlantis Gene?

So I think I am going to have to start paying for books again because getting through The Atlantis Gene was hard for me. The book is the debut for author A.G. Riddle, and according to the Amazon reviews a lot of people liked it. I am not one of those people, so this may have just been a personal taste thing. I hope for Riddle’s sake that it is.

The plot is about some sort of … well … I just finished the book and I am already forgetting it. I remember it contains Nazis, crazy evolutionary theories, spy networks, global ancient conspiracies, 9/11 was an inside job, and just a touch of romance. Some of the stuff in that list I like, but it just all made me want to fall asleep.

According to its subtitle it is “A Thriller”, but I was less then thrilled while reading this book. I just wanted to be doing anything else every time I picked it up and started reading it. I just kept telling myself that it was full of Nazis and space people so I should like it. I didn’t. I feel bad for disliking this book as much as I do, since I tried to write book myself, and it is not that great either, but I do really, really wish that I had never read this book.

Are there good solid technical reasons I disliked this book? Probably, but that means I would have to think about it more to explain them to you, and I don’t want to do that. So should you read this book? Well if you like thrillers, this apparently is one of them, so there you go. On a personal note to A.G Riddle: I am sorry I hate your book, but I do, and I wish you the best in your future endeavors.

May 6, 2014May 6, 2014

Gotham Has Won Me Over!

When I first heard of the idea of Gotham, I was excited about a cop show set in Gotham without Batman, but then they started talking about all the high school aged villains in the show, and I got very unexcited. I didn’t want a Smallville but with Batman, but the new trailer has won me over. I will wait here while you watch it below…

It looks pretty good right? I was surprised by how much this looks. I am still not sold on the junior Bat-cast, but if they are used sparingly it could be pretty cool. Jada Pinkett Smith is killing it as an up and coming mob boss, and Ben McKenzie looks fantastic as a wide-eyed Jim Gordon trying and failing to clean up the streets.

While so far DC has been unable to capitalize on their franchises for movies, their TV studio looks to continue to pump out the hits. Supposedly this trailer and pilot have gone so well that Fox has already ordered a full season of Gotham. Which is fairly unheard with five months to go until the air date. We haven’t heard how the Preacher (AMC), Hourman (CW), and Constantine (NBC) shows are going, but with three of the six DC shows already fully ordered (Gotham, Arrow, and The Flash), I will have a lot of TV to watch.

May 5, 2014May 6, 2014

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Is A Mess!

The first Amazing Spider-Man was surprisingly good since people had such low expectations for such a quick reboot to the franchise. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 unfortunately takes a few steps back from its predecessor. It is an unfocused mess, and it is a shame because there is a good movie in middle of all that mire.

The movie picks up directly after the first Amazing Spider-Man, with Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) still madly in love with Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), but Gwen’s father’s death is weighing on Peter and complicating their relationship. To complicate matters further Peter is also trying to figure out what happened to his parents. Meanwhile OsCorp is taking over New York’s power grid, and it is being worked on by the mild-mannered electrical engineer Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx). Plus Harry Osborn(Dane DeHaan) returns to be with is ailing father.

The problem with this movie is that there are too many things going on at one time. You got Peter and Gwen’s relationship, Peter looking in to his parents’ deaths, Max’s transition in to Electro, Harry dealing with his father’s death, and Harry becoming the Green Goblin. There are five story lines right there, and I may have left some out. This movie is two hours and twenty minutes long, and there still isn’t enough time to deal with all this stuff.

The actors do what they can, and Garfield and Stone really shine in this movie with great chemistry. They bring life to Parker and Stacy, but they also get the most air time, so their story develops naturally. Foxx and DeHaan are not given that luxury, so they have to play their parts way over the top giving the villains in this movie a very Batman Forever feel. Which would be fine if the rest of the movie wasn’t so serious. It is quite jarring.

They just should have left a few things out. Parker doesn’t need to investigate his parents’ deaths. He already has daddy issues thanks to Uncle Ben’s death, he doesn’t need more, and it doesn’t amount to anything. We didn’t need the Green Goblin in this movie. They could have saved that for the third one, and given DeHaan the time his character needed. That extra screen time would have helped Foxx’s Electro out quite a bit. Maybe at least he wouldn’t have come off so zany.

The special effects in this movie range from excellent to crappy. Spider-Man zipping around New York is awe inspiring. The finally battle between him and Electro looks like a bad video game. With a budget as big as this movie had, it seems like they could have fixed it up quite a bit.

The Amazing Spider-Man set this series up for success. Sadly the Amazing Spider-Man 2 wastes most of that potential. There are parts of this movie that work and are really fun, but there is so much bloat that this movie just can’t keep its momentum. This is not the worst Spider-Man movie (That is all you Spider-Man 3!), but it is close, and I hope that for Sony’s sake they can turn this franchise around.

April 29, 2014April 29, 2014

Disney Killed The Star Wars Expanded Universe, And It Is OK!

When I first head that Disney was going to kill off the current Star Wars Expanded Universe, I was dumb struck. “How dare they just toss out the stories that I love!”, I thought, but the more I think about it, the more I am okay with it. Disney wants to make a Star Wars Universe that is cohesive and make sense, and that is a good thing.

Most of the stuff in the Expanded Universe was pretty awful anyway, and honestly a lot of it didn’t fit together, so it was broken. Disney starting over allows them to pick and choose the good ideas out of the EU, and ignore all the garbage. We don’t know what they are going to keep at this point, but they did give us a few examples: The Inquisitor, the Imperial Security Bureau, and Sienar Fleet Systems from the table top RPG are in the new cartoon, so you never know your favorite EU Star Wars character may still make it in.

Even if something we like doesn’t make the cut it isn’t like it is going to cease to exist. They didn’t make EA take down Star Wars: The Old Republic, Wookieepedia is still going strong, and the books on your shelf didn’t disappear. It just isn’t necessarily going to be treated as canon going forward. If this was a comic book universe the fans would care less because they toss stuff out of the canon all the time. It is just a big deal to Star Wars geeks because it has held together for as long as it has.

If the new stuff from Disney is awesome nobody will even remember that they tossed out the current Expanded Universe and started over. They will just be enjoying the cool new stories. As long as Disney has Chewbacca getting crushed by a Moon (best death ever) the world will keep on spinning fellow Meatbags!

April 28, 2014April 28, 2014

Hey Guess What? Warner Bros is Making a Justice League Movie!

Well it is about time that Warner Brothers told us all what we knew was happening anyway, they are making a Justice League Movie! If you can believe the Wall Street Journal anyway. This was one of Hollywood’s worst kept secrets, even by their loose lipped standards. It is supposed to come out by 2018 at the earliest after Batman Vs. Superman, and if people like it there will be all sorts of DC superhero moves.

It will be interesting to watch that film develop since they are approaching it the opposite way Marvel did, by making their “Avengers” first, and then having the solo films. I hope it works because DC has a lot of really good characters that are just waiting around for someone to use them. Who knows how long people’s appetite for superhero movies will last.

I will be curious to see which villain they use as the impetus for building the League. I am guessing it will be Brainiac. He is super smart and super strong, and you can use him in a myriad of ways. Though my hope is that they use Darkseid, so that in future movies they can have the whole planet of Apokolips attack. What is more fun than one crazy baddie? A ton of crazy Baddies!

We have about four years and two months to speculate on this film, and I can’t wait. Though it all hinges on Batman Vs. Superman being good. Here is hoping. Though a part of me just knows that Warner Brothers will find a way to screw this up.